Who is that man?
by blu-babe
Summary: HxB YYH DBZ Xover. Has good grammar! Botan is sent to get technology to prevent a war Hiei is sent when she runs into trouble. Surprising twist at the end! Read for fluff and fun between HieiXBotan and VegetaXBulma. Rated for language and suggestive theme
1. Chapter 1

AN// Okay, one quick thing. This is based around YYH, but takes place mostly in the DBZ universe, and mentions different things from it. And yes…towards the end, Botan's long explanation; I DID have to include that stuff. I'm sorry; but it's my passion. But it makes an interesting twist, no? (I don't believe I've read a **YYH** fic with those references yet)

Hair dark as midnight, eyes so cold you would hardly see the colour before you died, and a temper most foul. These are what describe two people from different worlds, who are about to collide in a very unusual way.

**_Who is that man?_**

* * *

The birds were chirping in the sky, giving the temple a very earthy feel. Botan sighed as the wind played with her blue hair; she loved the feeling she got when she was flying. It was like she was a bird, drifting around in the sky, above all the people of the world and their petty problems. Sometimes she wished she could fly without her oar, then it would just be her lazing about in the clouds all day; not good for productivity. 

Maybe that was why Koenma had bound all his ferry girls to their oars. So they would stick to work. Maybe that's also why they were all so dull. All but her that is, her side job left no room for being dull. A detectives assistant. Always the assistant, never the detective. Maybe this new case she was going to pick up would be different? Undoubtedly not.

Rekai swam into her view over the horizon and she sighed, preparing to land as smoothly as ever on the uninteresting ground by the palace gates. Funny huh? Uninteresting palace grounds. The first thing one ought to think is extravagant. And maybe to some people that is the way they'd seem, but she knew them far too well, and they had become only too dull now.

As usual, she landed without a bump, dissipating her oar and walking foreword, nodding to the guards, all with a practiced ease. _'How dull.'_ She thought, not even blinking at the busy bodies all around her when she entered the front door. The reception area was, well…astonishing-_ly boring_-! Same gold walls, same purple carpets, same busy ogres, and same dull ferry girls. _'Where is the excitement? Where is the wonder? Where is the job I signed up for?'_ She thought angrily when she walked down her usual hallway, leading up to the huge silver trimmed doors that sealed Koenma's under-furnished office from view.

She knocked on the doors, not even wincing as the silver and gold cracked her knuckles, "Enter!" She pushed open the heavy doors and stepped into the room as cheerfully as she could muster. "You called me for an important matter?" The toddler sized demi-god sitting behind the desk, also known as Koenma, gave her a huge grin; instantly telling her something was wrong. "Yes, yes I did. I noticed you've been working too hard." _'Oh boy. Here come the lectures.'_ She thought with a roll of her eyes as she sat on the nearest chair to rest her legs.

"Don't roll your eyes Botan; I'm merely implying you have earned a long, relaxing vacation." Now that she hadn't expected. A vacation, it was almost too good to be true; but then again, where would she go? Everywhere was so dull and monotonous. "Which you will get once you complete this mission." He handed her a manila folder which she opened and did a quick once over. "Okay, so just Yusuke and Kuwabara, or Kurama and Hiei too?" He chuckled at her and shook his head. "Nope, only you. We can't trust anyone with this other than a delegate of the spirit world. But if you encounter problems, I'll send someone to help, and/or fetch you."

Talk about exciting. Some political game. Oh what fun she was going to have. "Alright, and what am I doing exactly?" She hadn't seen much info in her folder, just four photos with small bits of information. "You will be negotiating for some information about Dr. Brief's inventions, in trade for access to training gear made in both Rekai and Makai. You'll be going into a new dimension, so you'll be stuck until we get all the data we need."

She thought, rather confused about the whole deal. "Alright. Any dangers I ought to know about first?" She hadn't been looking him in the eyes when she'd asked, but when he coughed nervously her head snapped up. "Well…we know very little about that dimension in particular, but there are reports of large reptilian creatures. Probably just rumors though. You should go pack up some clothes; and pack light. We don't know the specific coordinates, so you could have a lot of hiking to do." 

Nodding, she stood up from the chair. _'What an interesting turn of events.'_ She thought as she headed back out into the hallway and down towards her small room. Her brain didn't even bother to pay attention as she walked the familiar path, and she had made her way into her own closet before she even realized it. Shrugging to herself tiredly, she pulled out four shirts and four shorts, socks, and undergarments, and tossed them into a tiny shoulder pack she'd found in Makai. It was a handy little thing; it could hold a million things and still weigh as little as a feather. She tossed a pair of shoes into the bag, followed closely by her toiletries and about five day's of food and water.

Tying the bag up, she slung it over her shoulder and exited her room, heading back to Koenma's office. When she arrived a swirling blue portal greeted her, the ones they only used for dimensions, and an awfully chipper Koenma. "I'll be in contact with you, and this device," he pulled a tiny red remote out of his pocket and handed it to her, "contains everything we will be trading for the information." She stuck it in her shoulder bag and bowed to Koenma before stepping through the portal.

When the blue lights disappeared she found herself smack-dab in the middle of a desert with giant mushroom-like trees. "Oh how lovely. This dimension's half desert." She grunted to herself as she pulled her communicator out of her pocket. Checking the built-in compass she realized, she had no idea which direction to go in. "Hmm…North, East, South or West? Well…East sounds good. I guess." She put away her communicator and tried to summon her oar, only to fail miserably. 'Oh joy.' She thought bitterly as she set out to start walking.

And walk she did. For many, many hours, in one straight line until the sun was about to set and she spotted a bluff of trees up ahead. "Oh the irony." She bit back a chuckle as she approached the trees, having remembered the argument she'd had with Hiei on their last mission.

_Flash back_

_"How can you sleep in a tree?" She asked innocently, and Hiei snorted, "How can you be such a baka." Botan was always quick to anger and Hiei always just made it worse. "At least I'm not some loser who has to sleep alone in a tree!"_

_End flash back_

"I guess I just graduated to the loser that has to sleep alone in a tree. Oh if Hiei ever heard about this." She began climbing the tree slowly, until she reached a strong looking branch that was wide enough she wouldn't roll off of it. She re-adjusted her shoulder bag behind her head and sighed as she looked up at the stars_. 'There's so many. I must be miles away from the big cities.'_ Sleep overcame her slowly as her thoughts drifted back to her friends and this mission.

The sun was beating down on Botan's face with an almost brutal intensity when she woke up. Judging from the position it was in, in the sky, she'd slept in till around eleven or so. "Shit." She shimmied out of the tree and stretched her limbs, preparing to cross more of the desert. She began a quick pace, figuring it would be easier, and hummed to herself as she walked.

About two hours later, she came across an oasis. She was so happy at first, that she thought it might have been a mirage. But it didn't waver or disappear as she approached it, and she almost jumped for joy. "Finally! Water and shade! And time for a nap!" She chanted to herself as she ran closer to the pond surrounded by luscious greenery. It wasn't until she neared the edge of the water that she noticed the large reptilian creatures lapping up the water.

Her jaw almost hit the ground when she did spot them; they looked an awful lot like dinosaurs. She took a few steps back and had almost gotten out of their sight when she stepped on a twig. A noise which effectively captured the attention of the three dinosaur-like creatures.

What happened next didn't surprise her too much; they moved away from the water and stalked towards her, obviously curious about this new creature. She screamed and started running away as fast as she could, and even Hiei would have to admit he'd never moved THAT fast. Unfortunately for her, these creatures were quite fast as well and they chased her North-West for three hours before she tripped on a root she hadn't seen. In fact, she hadn't even seen the forest appear.

She turned around to look behind her and noticed the pack had grown from three to seven, and they were gaining on her vulnerable and paralyzed form quickly. She screamed as loud as she could, hoping against hope that some one would hear.

Not five hundred yards from where she was, there happened to be two strong people, training. "AHHHHHH!" Her scream echoed throughout the forest, capturing their attention, and in a flash they had streaked towards the noise at an unbelievable speed. "Oh god! Go away! Go away! This can't be happening! Ahhhhhh!" She had begun screaming at the creatures after she had managed to stand back up and continue running. By the time she'd finished the first round of cursing the creatures she'd run right into a very muscular tree.

When she hit the ground she whimpered_, 'Oh no! I'm done for now! Curse you Koenma!'_ She cursed her boss out in her mind and stayed still for nearly three minutes when she realized she wasn't dead yet. "What the…how come I'm not dead…?" She peeled open her eyes to see a twelve-year-old child starring her in the eyes. He didn't look particularly mean, or evil, or menacing, but she still screamed. She shuffled back as quickly as she could until she hit something hard. "Bulma?" She looked up and fell sideways in a dead faint. The stress of the day and the strenuous exorcise had finally taken its toll on her.

The man looked at the young boy, his son, and scratched his head. "I guess it's not Bulma. Sure looks like her though." The boy nodded, "Yeah. We can't leave her out here, should we take her home and see what mom thinks?" The man nodded and picked Botan up, "Yeah. It's almost dinner time anyway." He nodded to his son and they took off, moving so fast it was almost like they were flying…

* * *

End of chapter one. 

The spelling and grammar should be pretty good. Every time I went to add onto this fic (in total, it's 48 pages long) I read what I already had and fixed any mistakes. R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Hair dark as midnight, eyes so cold you would hardly see the colour before you died, and a temper most foul. These are what describe two people from different worlds, who are about to collide in a very unusual way.

**_Who is that man?_**

**_Chapter two_**

* * *

…Botan didn't come to until night had settled into the sky, and again when she opened her eyes cautiously, she came face to face with the young boy. "Ahhh!" She screamed again and tried to backup, resulting in her pushing herself off of the couch. When she hit the ground several people rushed into the room, and two people went to block the exits so she couldn't run outside and wind up hurt.

She saw the eight people surrounding her and the two guarding the doors and began to panic. _'Oh no! Where am I? What happened?!'_ Her eyes traveled over everyone until they locked onto a woman who looked almost identical to her. If she weren't as smart as she is, Botan might have thought she'd been looking in a mirror. Only two words made it through her thoughts and to her mouth despite all the questions she wanted to shout, "Holy shit."

"Where did you find her again Goku?" The look-alike woman asked the man who had called Botan that weird name earlier, "In the forest, she was being chased by a pack of dinosaurs." Botan's eyes went wide as saucers when she heard that. "D-dinosaurs?! B-but I thought those were all dead…. Oh…. Lord…. Koenma…Where have you sent me?!" If Goku hadn't had such good hearing, he might not have even heard her, she was mumbling so low. "Who's Koenma?"

Botan didn't even think before answering, because this was just an automatic thing, "He's Enma's son." By time she even realized she'd answered, she was shaking again. _'I probably shouldn't have said that, now they'll look at me like I'm nuts.'_ She thought sadly.

Nobody said anything for a couple minutes, as they all thought about what she'd said. They didn't know whether to believe her or not. "Why did you have all those dinosaurs following you? They are usually very spread out in packs of two or three." Botan's eyes snapped to the young boy and she almost, _almost_ sighed, "I ran into three at an oasis in the desert, I ran and they followed me. I have no idea where the other four came from; I ran a long way."

"Okay, now that's got to be a pile of crap!" The new voice, suddenly annoyed, came from one of the guards at the doors. He was short and fat, and it she didn't know better she'd say he was a pig; a walking, talking pig. _'What a jerk. He reminds me of Hiei. Stupid little jerk.'_ She thought bitterly as she rolled her eyes. _'If he says one more thing, I don't care if I'm surrounded by strangers, I'll beat the shit out of him!'_ She was fuming silently to herself when the piggy-man, as she had decided to call him, decided to test his luck. "She's obviously delusional. Maybe she fried her brain in the sun."

_'THAT'S IT!'_ She stood up angrily, and pushed past the people in front of her and stalked up to the piggy-man (whom looked like a real pig up-close) and shot him a glare even Hiei would have been scared of. "Shut up you little porker! I think I'd know when I'd been running from things that aren't supposed to still be alive, for god knows how long! I was trained better than that!" To top of her angry shouting, she punched him on the head and knocked him out.

The whole room was quiet for about two point zero seconds before the boy started shouting, "She hit Oolong!" Botan didn't bother to remember the name, figuring she'd probably just be dead in the next minute or so anyway. "She's got spunk. I like her." Botan felt her eye twitch as one of the grown men began approaching her, he had a scarred face, and his hair looked almost like Yusuke's when it wasn't slicked back.

The man held out a hand and proudly announced himself; "I am the desert bandit Yamcha. What's your name?" Eye still twitching, Botan took a step back, "Not interested." His face fell a bit at her blunt response while a couple people behind him snickered. He reached out to put his hand on her shoulder, but she stepped back again, and glared at him, "I wouldn't go around touching women you don't know if I was you buddy." He didn't seem to hear her warning, or see her glare, as he took a few more steps towards her and successfully captured her arm with his. "Quit playing hard to get, you know you want me."

His words successfully made calm, reasonable Botan disappear to be replaced by violent Botan. "Get your filthy arm off of mine or I'll break it off." He chuckled at her, and everyone else in the room backed up a bit, "You couldn't if you tried girl. I'm the strongest man on earth!" His words appeared to bother only a few other people in the room besides Botan. "Oh really. Strongest on earth?" She asked, almost sincerely, and he nodded happily; "Then I suppose that this won't hurt?" She stomped on his foot, and swept it behind him so he lost his balance, "Or this?" Using her elbow, she whacked a nerve just below his neck, knocking him unconscious.

She reached into her pocket and pushed a button on her communicator, the panic button that Koenma told her to use if she needed help. "Um…thanks for the hospitality and all, but I really have some important business to take care of…and um…my associate isn't a very social person. And he's waiting and umm…He has a violent temper! Really bad…so…um…just point me back towards the desert and I'll leave…" She was trying to pull some believable lie out of her hat as she inched towards the door slowly. "The desert's east." Was the only reply she got before she bolted out the door and in some random direction; accidentally going north.

The conscious group of people watched her leave, and the blue haired woman blinked once, "She's not going east."

Botan knew this was the wrong direction when she only encountered more forests and mountains, but she didn't care. She just kept running until she hit something that was oddly soft. She waited for the ground to connect with her back, but it didn't and she opened her eyes to see very familiar green ones. "KURAMA!" She jumped up and threw her arms around him like he'd just saved her life. "Oh my god you have no idea what I've been through today! They have dinosaurs here! DINOSAURS!" She pulled back from her bear hug when he chuckled, "I would like to see that; but alas I can't. Koenma only sent me to tell you that due to the dangers here, he's sending Hiei as soon as we find him."

Her face dropped instantly, "But he hates me! He'll just let them kill me!" He chuckled again and she pouted, pushing him away. "Why does everyone laugh at me when I say that?!" "You'll see." He ran a hand through his long red hair and continued to chuckle at her for several minutes. It's awful, being left out of an inside joke, when every one except you knows it.

He put his arm around her shoulder when he composed himself and gave her a serious look; "Do you like him?" The question took her by surprise. Did she like Hiei? _'Do I like him enough to tell his best friend?'_ She thought for a moment, counting the pros and cons of telling Kurama and sighed. "So what if I do. He doesn't like me at all." "Don't be so sure. But I can't say anything because I'll be endangering my health if I do. I'm sure it'll all be fine, just try and be nice." She smiled at him, "Oh great advice, I'll end up dead for sure. Thanks." He chuckled again and smirked, "You're welcome, now go find somewhere safe to sleep, and in a couple hours, Hiei'll be here with you so you can finish this mission quickly." After a quick hug, Kurama left through a blue portal, and Botan was alone again.

She glanced around, looking for a place to sleep, but decided she didn't particularly feel very tired, although she could use a bath. She walked for almost an hour and a half before she heard running water, and she almost cried from joy when she saw it was a hot spring, and empty. In fact, it looked like no one had ever even been to it before. "Yay!" She stripped off her shirt and shorts, and set them down on some dry dirt before jumping into the hot water.

The heat soothed her sore muscles, and she felt her body relax. She sat in the water for over an hour as she scrubbed the dirt off her skin, around her bra and underwear (having not trusted the water enough to be completely nude) and she had begun humming a lullaby.

"Mmmmhhhhmmmmmhhhhuuuuhhhhhmmmm…" She almost didn't notice the rustle in the bushes beside her, until a figure swathed in black stepped out of them. He had just been shoved through some weird blue portal, in the middle of the night by his baka toddler boss and his baka best friend in order to protect the baka onna from baka extinct animals. He was surrounded by baka's.

When she saw Hiei come out of the bushes, and stand there starring at her, she growled, "You pervert! I'm half-naked! Turn around or leave so I can finish bathing!" She would have screamed and freaked out at him, but she was so tired of screaming it wasn't even funny. He even seemed slightly surprised she didn't scream, and he even liked this change! Not that he was about to say that out loud.

"Hn. Whatever, just hurry up baka." He left the clearing to contemplate the disturbing thoughts that had popped into his head when she had mentioned something about being half-naked. Once he was out of sight, she sighed and sank down under the water until it was just below her eyes. _'Stupid Hiei. Stupid Koenma. Stupid Kurama. Stupid, stupid BAKA'S!'_ She thought angrily before climbing out of the water, she pulled her clothes on, after realizing that she didn't have a towel because her bag was missing, _'It's probably back at those people's house. Damn.'_ She wrung her hair dry and walked through the bushes looking for Hiei.

She found him sitting in front of a small fire, roasting a large fish, while glaring at nothing in particular. "What are you so mad about? This was supposed to be MY mission." He didn't even dignify her with a proper response, he just Hn'ed and took the fish off the fire, giving her a piece of it. Under threat of being imprisoned, Hiei was being forced to be nice and considerate to the baka onna, but of course, if Koenma weren't so thick, he'd see that Hiei didn't even need to be threatened.

She took the fish from him, hoping it wasn't raw or poisoned, and she bit into it. Hiei was a good cook; that wasn't something she'd expected. Most demons couldn't cook a carrot, let alone a fish. "Thanks Hiei. I know the last place you want to be is beside me in the woods of some other dimension full of weenies and baka's. I don't know how Koenma convinced you to come, but I'm still glad." She was rambling and she knew it; but she couldn't help it. She really was happy he was here and making a half-assed effort to be civilized with her. Although, he'd only been here ten to fifteen minutes, so maybe it was a little early to be thanking him.

Once she was finished with the fish she laid back onto the ground and yawned. It had been a _long_ day. She watched Hiei stand up and go over to the closest tree, he was just about to jump into it when he turned and looked at her. "Onna, do you really want to sleep on the ground with all the animals around here?"

She jumped up and scrambled over to the closest tree, she certainly didn't want to wake up dead. "Looks like I'm not the only loser who has to sleep in a tree." He disappeared into the leafy branches and she shook in silent anger. She definitely shouldn't have thanked him just yet.

---------

When the morning sun rose over the mountains, Botan woke up to a pair of dark eyes staring right at her. She blinked a couple of times, realized she was still in the tree and screamed pushing herself away from the floating thing with eyes. She felt the branch slide out from underneath her and waited for the ground to connect with her body, but it never came.

Meanwhile, Hiei had gone off training almost an hour ago, and was just starting to relax when he heard her scream. Rolling his eyes, he headed back to where she was, not running his fastest, but running none the less. When he arrived he saw Botan falling out of her tree, and landing in the arms of some green skinned guy.

"Piccolo! Is she okay?!" His eyes were drawn back towards a small boy who seemed to be flying towards the green man. He blinked a couple times, deciding to wait and see what happened, as long as the onna wasn't being hurt he didn't have to step in; but then, why did he want to hit the green man for touching her?

Botan opened her eyes and screamed again. "Put me down! Let me go! HIEI!" She pushed herself out of Piccolo's (the green man's) arms and started backing up. She stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, hoping it was Hiei's (although realizing somewhat that it wasn't) she turned around and groaned. It was that kid from yesterday. "Why are you following me?"

The kid blinked and grinned, "You went the wrong way and my mom told me I should come and help you and you left your bag at our place and mom said I could help you get where ever you're headed, s'long as I still study!" Suddenly she felt _very_ stupid for always screaming when she saw the kid. "Oh…. um…I'm sorry about screaming…on all three occasions…I'm just a very jumpy person…" "Hn. You can say that again baka onna." She jumped and turned to her left, where Hiei was leaning, bored, against a tree.

"Oh shut up Hiei." She stuck her tongue out at him, collected herself and turned back to the kid. "My name's Botan. I'm afraid I never caught yours…" He grinned even wider and gave a small bow, "My name's Son Gohan. My dad's Son Goku and my mom's name is Chi Chi. My dad's the strongest fighter ever, and that's Piccolo!" He pointed behind her to the green man, "He's my teacher and he's from Namek!"

She took in all the information surprisingly well for what they thought to be an ordinary human. "I see…Namek? Hiei, ever heard of it?" She turned to her stubborn demon friend and he snorted, "How would I know of some stupid ningen country baka onna." She rolled her eyes at him and shook her head, "I guess that's 'Hiei' for 'NO'." She turned back to the boy when she heard him giggle, "Namek's a planet, not a country. What planet is your friend from? He almost looks like a Saiyan. Is he from Vegetsai?! He could be Vegeta's long lost twin brother!"

Botan sweat dropped at the kid's rambling. Should she stick to calling Hiei a fire demon, or maybe call him a Saiyan…whatever they are. "Um…no…" _'Better stick as close to the truth as possible.'_ "He's from Makai…it's way out on the edge of the galaxy…I'm actually from there too." Okay, it was technically half true. She didn't have to stick to the WHOLE truth.

"Woah…cool…no wonder you could beat up Yamcha! He's strong and you beat him so easily!" She chuckled a little nervously and nodded, "Yeah…Every one on our planet's pretty strong…Our gravity is umm…probably like 50X Earth's." Okay, now she was fudging the whole story. But what the kid thought he knew couldn't hurt her, right? "Isn't that right Hiei?" She shot him a threatening look, at which he rolled his eyes, and he nodded once.

Inside, she felt like she could jump him and kiss him for playing along, although to actually do such a thing would only result in her head being chopped off so she held back her urge. She was about to bid Gohan and Piccolo farewell when a thought struck her. It was a total shot in the dark but it was worth a shot. "You said you could help us get where we're going right? Well…I'm not sure of the city I'm supposed to go to, but I'm looking for a Dr. Briefs…I heard she came up with some really amazing technology…my b…King sent me here. Koenma…We're in the middle of this big war on our home planet and he umm, wanted me to ask for help…" She was starting to feel bad about all these lies…Koenma a king, HA! He's barely a prince…but whatever got her where she was going, right?

The boy grinned at her through her whole speech, "I know who you mean. That's Bulma! She was at the house; she looks a lot like you. She went back to West City last night, but I can take you there right now if you're ready." Botan felt dumb. Very, very dumb. Here she was supposed to be going west, and she had gone east. The opposite way. "You're kidding? WEST? And here I went east for two days…" She smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand and felt Hiei's heated glare on her. She could have been safely in the city, and he could have been sitting in his tree spying on the oaf and his sister right now. Upset was an understatement, he was pissed.

"Baka onna! You were going the wrong way! I got pulled away from my busy schedule because YOU went the wrong way?!" She flinched at his tone, trying desperately to fight the urge to yell at Hiei and run away, "I'm sorry Hiei. The king never told me where to go! He gave me a name and shoved me off the planet okay!" Okay, so she couldn't NOT yell at him, but at least she wasn't running for her life now.

Gohan watched the two with mild amusement, they bickered like Bulma and Vegeta. It was so cute to him; mind you he's only twelve. "We should go now, so you can catch Bulma before she has to start making Vegeta his lunch. It'll be real quick if we fly, can you guys fly?" Botan and Hiei looked at the kid like he'd grown another head, how were they going to fly all the way out here? There wasn't any planes or anything, and Botan's oar wasn't working.

"I could try summoning my oar again I suppose." She held out her hand and concentrated as hard as she could, until she felt something soft appear in her hand. She starred at the fluffy golden cloud with great confusion, "That's not my oar…but as long as it flies…" Gohan and Piccolo stared at her in awe, she'd just summoned a nimbus cloud out of thin air. "You can ride a nimbus cloud? Those are very picky…" Hiei snorted at the soft looking cloud, surely that thing couldn't fly or hold someone. "Baka onna quit fooling around and summon your baka oar."

She glared at him and tried again to summon her oar, only to make the nimbus cloud, as it seemed to be called, glow brightly with a golden light. "Alright…I guess on this planet, my oar is a…erm…'nimbus cloud'…" She removed her hand from the cloud and jumped on, finding it surprisingly soft and fluffy, yet strong enough to support her weight. "Wow…this is much more comfortable than my oar. C'mon Hiei." She patted the cloud next to her and he rolled his eyes.

"If you're driving, I'll just run." Sure he was sounding tough, but really, Hiei sensed something odd about the cloud. It had this really pure energy to it, much in contrast to his own energy. Gohan was staring at her like she was his new role model. "Wow, you're lucky, you've got a pure heart! The nimbus only lets those with a pure heart ride it." Upon hearing the child's praise Botan grinned, "Oh, really? Good thing Hiei didn't try to get on then, he would have fallen through it. He's about as pure as the d…" She stopped joking when Hiei shot her one of his famous death glares.

"Okay, um Gohan, lead the way. Hiei's a fast runner, he should be able to keep up fine." The boy nodded, inwardly laughing at the short, black clad man whom could not ride the nimbus. Jumping into the air, he floated about ten feet in front of Botan, while Piccolo did the same behind her, so they could make sure she wasn't lost along the way; Kami knows how bad her directional skills seemed to be.

They took off slowly at first, until Hiei was complaining and threatening to hurt someone, and they made it to West City, at exactly one PM. Gohan led them towards the biggest building in the city, where they could hear minor explosions and yelling even from blocks away. "There's Bulma's place. Don't mind the explosions, they just mean Vegeta's not going to be there to yell at her." Botan glanced back at Hiei, she was so glad he was here now. This Vegeta guy had her worried.

"Thank you so much Gohan. Do you think you could just check and make sure she's not busy or anything first please? We don't want to interrupt anything important…" Gohan smiled at her and nodded before zipping off into a window on the third floor. He returned the same way and gestured to the window, "Go ahead, she's just fixing one of Vegeta's robots. She's got plenty of time." Botan took a deep breath and headed towards the window, with Hiei, Gohan and Piccolo following behind her. They couldn't just let some strange aliens stay alone in there with Bulma, specially not if the seemingly weaker one had knocked Yamcha unconscious.

* * *

End of chapter two. 

The spelling and grammar should be pretty good. Every time I went to add onto this fic (in total, it's 48 pages long) I read what I already had and fixed any mistakes. R&R


	3. Chapter 3

Hair dark as midnight, eyes so cold you would hardly see the colour before you died, and a temper most foul. These are what describe two people from different worlds, who are about to collide in a very unusual way.

**_Who is that man?_**

**_Chapter three_**

* * *

When she landed in the room, Botan came face to face with a rather neutral looking woman, who looked almost exactly like her. "Dr. Briefs?" She asked with a small bow, it was best to try and be polite, especially after the first meeting. Hiei was through the window before the woman, Bulma, had responded and he almost thought he was seeing double. "Yeah, I'm Bulma Briefs. And who are you?"

Botan stood up straight grinning like an idiot, "My name's Botan Fujiya, this is my associate Hiei Jaganeshi. We have traveled far from our home planet of Makai, to ask for a trade. Our world is rich with resources, but our people cannot build weapons to defend themselves." She took a deep breath, the grin having disappeared from her face after she said Hiei's name. "We are under attack from warriors of a mighty planet. Our king…" Hiei shot her a glare and interrupted, "YOUR king. He's not MY king." She rolled her eyes, "Fine…yes…MY king has sent me here to ask for help in exchange for some of our greatest resources."

Bulma blinked a couple times, obviously in shock. How in the hell did they know of her?! Botan shot a glare at Hiei, why did he have to interrupt her?! Gohan watched from the window, and noticed Hiei's sword. "Hey, what about that guy…Hiei's… sword? That's a weapon!" Botan glanced down at his waist, and sure enough he had the sword. "He acquired that from another planet. The same planet we are fighting in fact. But it's made out of materials from our world, which were plundered by the warriors."

Somewhere in the dimensions, some one had to be hearing this BS and laughing their asses off. Botan and Hiei were sure of it. But it would seem that Bulma found these facts to be quite plausible. "I see…well, I'll be more then happy to help you out. I just have to finish this robot and give it to Vegeta before he has a royal hissy fit." She gestured to the half-melted robot sitting on her desk. Botan vaguely thought that it looked like something Hiei would do, and giggled to herself. "That's quite the mess there."

Bulma nodded and bit back some giggles of her own. Hiei, Gohan and Piccolo watched the two women from the window area and two of them shuddered. "Baka onna, let's go. If we're not getting the information now, perhaps I should train so when we finally get back I can stop them from killing you." Botan stopped giggling and scowled to herself, stupid Hiei, he was always ruining the fun. "Yeah yeah, keep your pants on. We can go in a minute, then you can practice swinging your sword around." She bowed slightly to her fellow bluette and stood back up grinning again, "It was an honor to meet you Bulma Briefs. My king and my people thank you for agreeing to help us."

"The honor's all mi…" Bulma was cut off as the door swung open and slammed into the wall, leaving a short man with a big scowl in its place. "Onna is that blasted robot finished yet!" All eyes were resting on the man in the door until Bulma started yelling. "No it's not! I have guests and quite frankly I don't give a crap if your robot is done when people come here from different planets to ask for my help!" Botan was getting an odd sense of de-ja-vu watching the man shoot a rather evil glare at her new friend Bulma, "Wow…he looks just like Hiei. That's creepy." She looked between her scowling friend and the glaring man as if judging which one was shorter. They were the same height.

Bulma, after hearing Botan's words, did the same and started gaping at the two of them; "He's the same height as Vegeta. Look, they've got the same hair. Maybe they're twins!" Bulma and Botan seemed to be sharing brainwaves as they started laughing at the two men. Hiei, deciding he'd had enough of being made fun of for now, growled and smacked Botan in the back of the head the way a mother would scold a misbehaving child. "Shut up baka onna. You're one to talk, you look just like that baka onna beside you."

That was apparently the wrong thing to say.

The next thing he knew, he was sprawled on his back with a stinging cheek. "We do not look alike. My hair is obviously several shades darker!" "And I don't have mauve eyes, mine are blue. Are all men colour blind or something?" Botan and Bulma glared at poor Hiei as he sat up. "Well I don't look like that baka over there, so maybe you're colour blind too, baka onna's." As he stood up, he was met by a very evil death glare from his 'twin'. "You dare insult the prince of the mighty Saiyans?!"

The girls cringed as the two boys growled at each other. This was going to be messy. The narrowed crimson eyes of Hiei mirrored a promise of death clearly seen in Vegeta's own dark eyes. Neither liked to be insulted, and neither would walk away from a battle of honor.

Nobody moved as they waited to see if the growling would escalate to a fistfight, although Botan inwardly noted that even the ever calm Kurama would have attacked by now, so obviously Hiei was actually contemplating whether or not to attack. The tension in the air was so thick, you could have cut it with a knife; and it was driving Botan nuts! "If you're going to fight, just do it already you big babies!" She shouted, she didn't want to stand here all day, watching nothing happen. That would be positively boring.

Her outburst had caused the two men to glare at her instead of each other, and she sighed in annoyance. "Obviously you're not going to fight; why don't you two just kiss and make up or something. I think I'll go study those dinosaurs." She walked towards the window, pushing past Hiei, and bowed to Gohan and Piccolo, waved to Bulma, and hopped out onto her spiffy nimbus cloud. Her words didn't sink into Hiei's head until she was about to take off, and he growled at her, "Baka onna get back here!" "No." She stuck her tongue out at her short little friend and sped off as quickly as she could, stunning Hiei.

Again the room was silent for a moment as they waited for someone to move, and someone did. In fact, he started laughing quite meanly. "Ha ha, you fool, your mate's gonna get herself killed out there." All eyes went to Vegeta, and Hiei ground his teeth together in rage, "That THING is not my mate! That THING is a baka, and I don't CARE if IT dies!" Hiei was lying. Inside, he felt a pang of guilt for talking like that, Botan is not a thing…she is a beautiful woman whom he loves. But he could never ever say that out loud.

Vegeta was shocked. Although he was also slightly amused because as Hiei had turned on him grinding his teeth, the baka onna had come back within hearing range. It was only a matter of seconds before she had bounded through the window and lifted Hiei up by his collar. "So I'm a 'thing' huh? Well at least I'm not a PMSing fire demon who got his ass kicked by a fourteen year old punk!" She started shaking the pissed off fire demon as she spoke, earning a _very_ pissed off glare.

Hiei grabbed her arms, sending enough ki through his hands to severely burn her. She yelped and dropped him on his ass on the wood, and started blowing on her wrists, trying to stop the flesh from burning any further. Tears poked out of the corner of her eyes, and suddenly Hiei felt really bad. Really, _really_ bad. He hadn't meant to make her cry he just wanted her to let him go. His anger fluttered out the window as Bulma rushed Botan out of the room when she saw the burning flesh.

Pulling Botan into the closest bathroom, Bulma set her friend's burning wrists into the sink and turned on luke-warm water, before grabbing a first aid kit from the medicine cabinet. "How did he burn you? Is he really a demon?" Botan nodded, trying to stop more tears from falling, she knew this was going to happen. "I told him. I told Kurama that Hiei would do this! I told him! But no one listens to the 'baka onna'." Bulma slowly turned off the water and dried the burns cautiously with a fluffy white hand towel. "The burns don't look so bad…maybe it was an accident." That was a lie. The burns didn't look normal, they were oozing pus and the skin was turning purple. Definitely not a good sign, no matter what race you are.

She grabbed some ointment out of the first aid kit and began spreading it out evenly on Botan's wrists before reaching for a load of bandages. Once her wrists were wrapped, Botan reached into her pocket and pulled out her communicator, just about ready to call Kurama and make him come here instead of Hiei. She didn't want to be near that baka, if she hadn't let go when she did, her hands would've been burnt off. She was about to dial the number when the communicator was ripped out of her hands.

She heard a crunch and nearly screamed, "Hiei no baka! How could you! You…you…you asshole!" She stormed out of the room, in a feeble attempt to get away from her fiery tempered friend, and pushed past the baka prince who had started the argument with Hiei that had lead up to this whole event. She hopped out the window onto her nimbus cloud again, this time speeding off with out any intentions of turning back.

Hiei ran out after her this time, having no intention of letting her get away. As Bulma watched two of her guests leave in a huff, and one with horrid burns, she grew very angry with her own nuisance prince. "Vegeta you baka, look what you did! You can make your own god damned dinner tonight, I can't believe you just had to say all that crap!" Vegeta felt no remorse. Why should he care if that baka fire demon was too big a coward to admit he had a thing for the onna he just burned? It was just radiating off him; even a child could have seen it.

Gohan and Piccolo decided it was time to leave when they saw the look Vegeta was giving Bulma. No one wants to be around when he gets that look it's scary. As soon as they were gone, Vegeta turned and left the room. He was hoping to get away without doing anything that might indicate to Bulma that he, the prince of Saiyans, had a thing for her.

* * *

Kurama was working diligently on his homework when he had a strange feeling. Something was going wrong on the mission. Hiei had just done something unbelievably stupid, and he was probably about to do worse. He reached into his top desk drawer and pulled out his communicator, dialing Botan's number, only to find it out of service. And to top that, his feeling that something was wrong had just doubled. "Hiei you baka." He mumbled as he grabbed a jacket out of his closet, he had to go there and make sure what ever Hiei had just done got fixed. And fast.

He was about to run out the door when he remembered that he would have to tell his mother he'd be gone for a while. "Mom! I just remembered that I was going to tutor my friend Yusuke, I'll be back later!" He barely even heard her response as he bolted out the door. He ran as fast as he could to the nearest deserted alleyway, and used his communicator to open a portal which was linked to Botan's spirit. That basically means wherever she is, that's where his portal will appear.

* * *

Botan had landed in the forest and began running, hoping that Hiei wouldn't be able to find her. She had only been running for mere seconds when she ran smack dab into a very familiar wall. "Botan! What happened? Why are you running?" She jumped at the sound of Kurama's voice and looked him straight in the eyes, still crying a little. "You came back?! Please don't leave this time! Please? I don't want to be alone with that jerk…" He looked into her slightly puffy mauve eyes and his heart melted a little. She looked so sad and pathetic; just what in hell's name did Hiei do? "Tell me what he did."

She sniffled and held up her bandaged wrists for him to see, and sighed irritably, "He burned me! And he insulted me, and he was picking fights with this local guy named Vegeta…and he walked in on me when I was bathing last night!" She waited for everything to sink in and for him to start getting mad, but he didn't. "That's all he did? Botan…" He chuckled softly and put an arm around her neck, "That's what Hiei does. He picks fights, he insults people…he umm…has no respect for privacy… and…he burns things." She frowned at her friend and scoffed, "He nearly burned my hands off. In front of the people I'm here to get help from. And the burn's infected too! It all purple-ish and oozing pus!"

Kurama scowled as he felt Hiei approaching, although Botan thought it was because he finally believed how mean Hiei was being. "Stay here for a second, I'll go talk to Hiei." He left before she could protest and she let herself fall to the ground. Everyone told her to stay put. Maybe she shouldn't listen this time. What was the point anyway? Nothing would happen. She stood up and dusted off her pants, picked a direction and started moving as quickly and stealthily as she could.

Kurama found Hiei leaning against a tree, glaring at him like he was the cause of all the problems. "Why did you come fox? I can handle the onna." Kurama rolled his eyes and sighed, "With the way you're treating her, you'll be lucky if she doesn't tell Koenma to lock you up for a millennia. She said there's an infection in the burns." He saw his friend cringe slightly _'Aha. So it was a mistake.'_ He thought almost happily. "Are you staying? Gonna kick me through a portal because she's being stupid?" Kurama shook his head, and saw Hiei relax a little, "I can't stay. Mother thinks I'm at Yusuke's, I just came to help you fix whatever you did, and give you a spare communicator. Since Botan's is broken."

Hiei rolled his eyes and scowled. "I don't need help. Why should I care if the baka onna hates me or not." "Because my friend, you love her." Quickly formulating a plan, Kurama grinned at his friend, "Let me talk to her again, then you can come and I'll leave you two alone. With any luck, She'll be yours in less then an hour." He ran back to where he'd left Botan without letting Hiei answer, and he nearly swore when he couldn't find her. "HIEI! She ran off!" In the blink of an eye, Hiei was beside him, with his jagan uncovered and already searching, nothing, that's what he found. "I can't sense her energy. It would appear fox, that there is no luck for us tonight." The two boys shared a scowl.

-

Botan had stumbled upon a very familiar face as she was going along. "Gohan! It's nice to see you again." She smiled cheerily at the boy who was standing by his father. "Botan, why are you all alone?" She coughed nervously and thought up a quick lie, "Um…Hiei's playing around with his sword and I didn't want to get in the way…so I thought I'd go for a walk. I was hoping to find a river." "Oh, well there's one about a mile that way," Gohan replied, pointing east, "oh, and this is my dad, Son Goku. The strongest fighter ever."

She couldn't help but smile at the boy's admiration for his father. "Nice to meet you Goku. I'm sorry for how I acted yesterday; I wasn't properly prepared the challenges of this new planet." She bowed politely and stood back up, "I should get to that river now, I need to catch some fish for dinner, thanks again!" She waved as she started heading east again. Really, she'd just wanted to follow the river until she came upon a lake or a spring so she could bathe.

She found the river relatively quickly, and followed it until she came upon a thick group of trees. She pushed through the hanging branches and stood with her mouth agape. It was the most beautiful hot spring she'd ever seen. There was blue and purple flowers lining the bank, and even a small waterfall. "I think I just died and went to heaven." It looked as though no one had even been here in months, if not years.

She made up her mind that this was too good a chance to pass up on, a hot bath was something so really needed. She set down her bag, only just remembering she even had it, and started to pull off her clothes. Once she was undressed she practically jumped into the water, savoring the warmth. She froze when she heard something rustle in the bushes behind her.

-

"I'll check south, you check east, alright Hiei?" The fire demon nodded with a scowl, and took off at a fast pace. Kurama smirked to himself as soon as Hiei was gone. His work was done. Botan _always_ went east. And she always went to a spring. By the time Hiei finds her, she should be much calmer, and hopefully not nude. He opened a swirling blue portal and hopped through it.

Hiei eventually caught her scent, and picked up his pace to find her. He stopped in front of a wall of trees, he stepped through them easily and his jaw nearly fell off his face. Botan had spun around just in time to show him that she was naked. He couldn't tear his eyes away from her body. She was too shocked that Hiei had come after her to worry about the fact that she was nude, "What on earth are you doing here Hiei?! How the hell did you find me!?"

He opened his mouth to respond, but the words were lost in his throat, he just couldn't do anything but stare. Botan realized her chest was exposed to the hentai fire demon and pushed her body under the water so barely even half of her neck was showing. "You pervert! You didn't have to keep staring like that!" She had gone red from both embarrassment and anger, _'How dare he stare at my chest! Just who does he think he is?!'_ Hiei blinked a couple times and composed himself. _'Why couldn't I look away!'_ "Baka onna, why would I stare at you."

His weak attempt at defending himself only made her more angry, _'He stands there gaping at my chest, and then denies it, after I CLEARLY noticed he was?!'_ She narrowed her eyes at him. "Go away and leave me to my bath you asshole." He left quickly, without any argument because he did not want to suffer her wrath. As soon as he was out of sight she groaned and smacked her forehead. She _almost_ missed his eyes. It was very flattering to have a demon who often turned porn stars down, staring at you like you were his wish come true.

She finished her bath and grabbed a towel out of her bag before climbing out of the water. She wrapped it around her body tightly and began looking for a change of clothing. She had just pulled on her undergarments when Hiei burst through the trees, almost in a way that was similar to being pushed, and she scrambled to grab her towel before he could start staring at her. "Hiei! What the hell do you think you're doing?! I'm not dressed yet! Go away!"

Hiei shot her an angry glare, here he was minding his own business when Kurama shows up and shoves him through the bush, where Botan still isn't dressed. "I'm sorry." She stopped fumbling with her towel when he spoke. She was so shocked that she barely even grasped what happened next. He walked up to her and pulled her head down for a passionate kiss. When he had relinquished his hold on her and walked back through the trees she nearly fainted. "Did that _actually_ just happen?" She asked herself. None of what had just happened made sense.

She thought desperately as she quickly threw on a shirt and pair of shorts. 

The sun had just begun its decent from the sky, casting the darkness of night onto Botan and Hiei as they sat around a warm fire, preparing for bed. She hadn't said a word to him since the kiss, which she was still convinced was only in her mind. Hiei was waiting for her to say something about it, so as not to sound stupid. Or say something stupid. His mind was still reeling from everything, he couldn't make out one thought from another, and it was beginning to anger him. He should not be like this because of some woman. He was a strong, fast demon with more power than most could imagine why should he let this onna make him weak?

Botan had opted to not sleep in a tree, and had cuddled into a tight ball around the base of a tree, while Hiei had jumped into a different tree and closed his eyes. As soon as she was sure he was asleep, Botan stood up carefully and stuffed her blanket into her bag, there was no way in hell she was sticking around. She wanted an adventure, not torture. She snuck off heading towards West City, and walked all night enjoying the moonlit forest around her. There was something calming about how the moon bathed everything with a soft glow, just bright enough to see the basic details. It was breath taking.

* * *

End of chapter three. 

The spelling and grammar should be pretty good. Every time I went to add onto this fic (in total, it's 48 pages long) I read what I already had and fixed any mistakes. R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Hair dark as midnight, eyes so cold you would hardly see the colour before you died, and a temper most foul. These are what describe two people from different worlds, who are about to collide in a very unusual way.

**_Who is that man?_**

**_Chapter four_**

* * *

When Hiei awoke the next morning, he found Botan gone, and no trace of her scent. He cursed to himself and looked around for clues as to where she could have gone, but found none. Botan hummed merrily as she continued walking, she could see Bulma Brief's home from the hill where she stood just outside of the city. It was really big, for a city, with lots of people and floating cars. She supposed that maybe this was what Koenma had truly been after, better transportation, and definitely weapons. He may not tell anyone, but she knew already, there was a big fight coming. The demons were getting ready to revolt. Why else would he have been so hesitant to let the boys come?

Hiei took off in a random direction, inwardly praying it was the same way she'd gone.

She walked calmly down the streets enjoying the sights and the smells, especially the sights. People were running around, going this way and that, and up ahead she could even see an organized street fight. As she got closer she heard a man shouting out to the crowd, "Anyone who can beat the champ will get 10, 000 yen. Come on, if you think you're man enough to beat my buddy Yamcha, I'll give you ten thousand yen!" Upon hearing the name of the fighter she grinned and stepped towards the ring. "I'll do it. Without fighting dirty." The whole crowd of people turned to look at her, several of whom were laughing.

"Be realistic girlie, Yamcha is a very strong fighter, he's already beaten seven guys today." She glared at the guy with the microphone and crossed her arms, "Oh so what, you think he's too tired to beat little old me? I'm just a girl, how hard could it be for him to beat me?" She sighed dejectedly, "Oh well…here I was going to offer him a date if he beat me. But I guess if he's too weak to do that I'll have to go find a REAL man." She started to walk away, counting in her head. She had only reached three when she heard Yamcha call after her. "Wait! I'll fight you. But I can't go easy on you because you're a girl."

She smirked and turned around quickly, "I wouldn't have it any other way, now get ready, you're going down." She walked towards him and he took up a defensive stance, figuring he should let her get a hit or two in before he won. It was only fair. She checked over his stance and shook her head, "There are so many things wrong with that stance, I could hit you in three places and you'd never be able to block, hun." He rolled his eyes and smirked devilishly at her, "Alright, try it sweetie."

Still smiling she prepared to attack him, only to find another fist had connected with his face first. She glared at the owner of the fist and growled, "Hey back off I was fighting him!" The owner of the fist turned his gaze to her and she scowled, "Oh it's you. What did you want?" She crossed her arms, clearly ticked that Hiei had found her so fast, and waited for his response. "Why the hell did you walk off last night?!" She was about to chew him out about the whole kiss when a better thought struck her, "I left because I don't think you're capable of protecting me. Yamcha is clearly a much better fighter. If he hadn't been focused on me, he'd have dodged your attack."

Hiei narrowed his eyes at her before turning to Yamcha, "Keep your filthy hands off of her or I'll slit your throat." The crowd gasped as he threatened Yamcha, and they all took a couple steps back. "Obviously she likes me better, I'll put my hands on her if I want to, midget." He stuck his hands together and a ball of pure energy began to form in his palms, "Now get lost, or I'll have to make you leave." The ball of energy began to grow larger and Botan nearly yawned. He was really weak; Kuwabara's spirit sword had five hundred times the power that ball did. Hiei on the other hand, started chuckling evilly at Yamcha's attempts to scare him, "That thing can't hurt me you baka."

Botan sighed and slapped her hand to her forehead, this would just be embarrassing for poor Yamcha, there was no way that that thing would even scratch Hiei's tough demon skin. "Yamcha don't hurt him! He's just trying to do his job, he's my body guard…I just wanted someone more fun to be around for a while…I'm sorry…" The earth fighter seemed to buy her fib and he let his power level drop, "Fine. But if he fails to protect you, you can come to me and I'll keep you safe!" The crowd had begun to cheer like Yamcha had just won a great fight, and Botan and Hiei left quickly.

"Baka onna why the hell did you really walk off last night." She shrugged at his question and pulled him towards the large building she could see Bulma in front of. "Bulma! Hey Bulma! Got a while to talk?!" She shouted as she let go of Hiei's hand and ran up to the gate.

Bulma saw Botan running towards her and grinned, "Of course! C'mon, I was just about to relax by the pool, you can come join me if you want!" Hiei rolled his eyes at the two women and groaned inwardly, he didn't want to sit around all day. He wanted to train. Botan ran over and jumped onto the pool chair beside Bulma's, "Oh this is a nice chair. You're lucky to own something like this." She laid her head back and closed her eyes as Bulma chuckled. "You wouldn't happen to have a dojo or something would you? Hiei's probably just dying to train."

Bulma pulled a small capsule out of her handbag and dropped it on Botan's stomach, causing her to open her eyes. "What's this?" She picked it up and examined the small capsule with interest until Bulma spoke, "Press the button on top and throw it over there by the house where it's just grass and you'll see why I'm so rich." Botan did as she was told and nearly jumped out of her skin when a giant building seemingly popped out of the ground. "What the heck?!" "That's called a gravity chamber, I invented it so Vegeta could train at high gravity level to increase his strength. This one's the spare, Hiei can use it if he wants." Botan stared at the building with awe, "That's amazing, can you show us how it works?"

Bulma nodded and stood up, "Of course, we can even set the gravity booster for Hiei. It'll help with speed and strength. Very valuable when you're fighting a war eh?" Botan nodded as they entered the gravity chamber. Bulma went straight over to the computer and turned it on, "Okay this button," she pointed to an 'up' arrow, "makes the gravity go up another percent, and this one," she pointed to a 'down' arrow, "makes it go down. The red button immediately shuts the whole thing off. Any questions?" She watched Botan's eyes light up and Hiei just sort of rolled his eyes like he thought the whole thing was stupid. "Can you turn up the gravity so I can feel it too?"

Bulma weighed her options and nodded once, "Alright but I'll only put it at 2X earth's gravity, since it's difficult to move unless you're really strong and I'll have to be able to turn it back down before we leave." She pushed the 'up' arrow and Botan fell to her knees immediately. "Oh wow! That's so cool!" She exclaimed as she jumped up. Her body adjusted to the new gravity quickly and she did a cartwheel, "This is so awesome. It's a little strong at first, but this feels great." Bulma watched in amazement as Botan bounced around normally, "Okay, wanna try one more?" Botan nodded eagerly and Hiei just rolled his eyes again.

She hit the arrow again and Botan wasn't even phased. "Wow you're strong, If I tried jumping I'd probably fall." Hiei finally grew bored of Botan's stupid hyper active jumping and growled, "Would you leave so I can start training!" Bulma and Botan giggled and walked out of the gravity chamber, leaving Hiei to start training.

"Wow, that was totally awesome. Maybe I could try using it later. It would be neat to see how much gravity I can handle." Botan practically skipped her way back over to the pool chairs, with Bulma following closely. "So what kind of weapons do your people need exactly? A bunch of swords or something better?" Botan stopped smiling at the mention of her mission. "Well, I'll give you more details, and you can help me decide what we need." Bulma nodded slowly, unsure of what to make of this.

"My kingdom is called Rekai. Our ruler Koenma, is not loved by all the peoples of the planet. There are only two other kingdoms, Ningenkai and Makai, and the leader of Makai is plotting a take over of my kingdom. Hiei is from the Makai kingdom, and in a prophecy I have found, I discovered he would soon take over our planet and cast it either into great shadows or great light. The warriors from a distant planet who have been attacking us are doing so because he ordered it himself." She paused for a moment to let it all sink in, and continued, "Koenma, my king, heard from across the stars, the name of a person who could help us. Dr. Briefs, a brilliant scientist from earth. He sent me here alone to ask for help, but after I was attacked by the dinosaurs I called for help."

"Koenma had no men to spare so I called a dear friend from the Makai kingdom, Youko Kurama. He could not stay and sent an associate of his, Hiei, in his place. I am the only one who knows of the prophecy stating Hiei will take over the three kingdoms, and according to the legend he can only bring light if he fights in the company of a woman." She stopped again to catch her breath and let it all sink in before continuing; "When my king sent me here I thought perhaps I could stop his conquest completely."

Bulma stayed quiet for a moment then giggled, "I think, perhaps, all you need as a weapon, is lingerie(sp?) then. If his fighting beside a woman will bring light to your planet, you need to seduce Hiei, not bring weapons to your home." Botan's face went beat red at Bulma's comment, "B-but…I couldn't…he'd never…seduce him?" Bulma started giggling again and nodded, "I could help if you want. I'm quite good with make-overs."

Botan's blush lightened a bit as she thought the suggestion through, "I suppose that might work…but what if I'm not the one the prophecy is speaking of?" "Well," Bulma replied, "tell me the exact prophecy." "Okay…umm…Twenty years past birth, the forbidden one will bring unto the world horrid darkness if his love is not set free. Only when he fights beside her, can he change the darkness of hate into a new light of hope. Only when he is released can he change the outcome."

Bulma almost burst out laughing at her poor, flustered friend. "Oh Botan. I was right, you gotta seduce him, not beat him. Sounds like you're supposed to mate with him or something." Oddly enough for Botan, the more Bulma said that out loud, the less crazy it sounded. Maybe she was right? That prophecy was true of course; Botan had stumbled upon it years ago. She was even more worried when she found out Hiei was almost twenty.

"How does one seduce an angry fire demon?" She thought aloud, asking herself more then Bulma, but she got a response from her fellow bluette, "The way any woman would seduce any man. Start with jealousy." Botan shook her head "That's liable to get someone killed. His temper is hotter than the sun." "Then it'll work quickly. But you'll have to be open to the idea I've got." Giving her intelligent friend a side-glance she sighed, "That depends on what it is." "You've got to kiss another man that he is threatened by." Botan sighed again and shook her head, "Uh-uh. He'll kill whomever I kiss. Doesn't matter how strong they are, he'll kill them _**IF**_ he's jealous. But that's a pretty big if."

"Okay…maybe there's another way to get his attention." Bulma said thoughtfully, deciding not to push her into something that might kill someone else. Botan suddenly clapped her hands together and shouted, "Bingo! I got it!" She lowered her voice before continuing; "I could ask him to show me how to fight. Lord knows you can't wear loads of stuff when you're working out. Do you think that'd work?" Bulma grinned, "I shoulda thought of that a long time ago. That should work great." Botan grinned with her friend until they heard a clock chime eleven from inside the house.

"Oh shoot, I gotta start lunch. You wanna help? We just gotta make a shit load of sandwiches." Bulma stood up, stretching out her arms; "It's really easy, I've got some cool machines in the kitchen." At that Botan jumped up enthusiastically, "Count me in!" She let Bulma lead her towards the house and into a large kitchen, "Woah…this is awesome!" She ran over to a counter and examined the beautiful black granite counters, which matched the deep red walls of the room very nicely.

Bulma pulled two machines out of a cupboard and pulled out three and a half loafs of bread, a whole brick of cheese, five pounds of roast beef and grinned, "Watch this." She put the bread into the machines evenly, and pressed a button. The next thing Botan knew, there was another machine being loaded with the meat and cheese. She watched as the first machine spat out bread with mayonnaise, the third machine dropped cheese and roast beef onto the bread and the second machine dropped another piece of bread with mustard on it.

Ten minutes later there was a huge plate stacked with sandwiches on the counter. "Wow…none of that's going to get wasted right?" Botan asked as she stared at the stack of yummy looking sandwiches, and she heard Bulma laugh, "Oh no. Vegeta eats lots. That should be just enough for everyone right there. I'd grab one now if I were you." She said, handing Botan a plate and taking one for herself. "Maybe you ought to grab a couple for Hiei. I don't think you'll want to see what will happen if he tries to get one off the plate when Vegeta's eating. He's such a pig." She handed Botan a second plate and she put two sandwiches on it.

Holding their plates the two girls went back out to the pool chairs and sat down. "Maybe I should take Hiei his sandwiches…I doubt he'll stop training for lunch." She picked up the plate with two sandwiches and walked towards the gravity chamber Hiei was in, trying not to blush at the grin Bulma had on her face. When the door opened she walked in, ignoring the pull of the gravity on her body, and found a small table in the corner. She tried her best not to stare at Hiei as she passed him, although it was hard not to when he was staring at her. Not to mention he was topless. But she refused to gawk at his chest like he'd done to her. That was impolite.

She set the plate on the table and glanced at the little screen that said how high the gravity was. 50X earth's gravity. "Here's a couple sandwiches if you get hungry and want to stop training, god forbid." She watched him scowl and sighed, "What?" "What if I don't want your crappy ningen sandwiches." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "Then get whatever you want on your own, I'm not a frigin' mind reader buddy." She started walking back to the door but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She turned to face Hiei and before she knew what was going on, he had her on the ground and he was on top, kissing her. His hands grabbed hers and he held them above her head. When he finally pulled back from the kiss, she was gasping for breath and he smirked, "Know what I want now, baka onna?" He dipped his face down, "You probably don't. You're a baka after all. I'll make myself clear." He whispered sedctively into her ear before he started to place kisses on her neck.

She could barely breathe, let alone think. She vaguely recalled that Bulma was waiting for her to come back, and would more than likely come get her if she took much longer. "Hiei…wait…stop, Bulma's…going to wonder what's taking…so long…" She said as best she could with the distraction of a horny fire demon kissing her neck hungrily. She heard him growl and continued to feel his soft lips on her skin until someone started hammering on the door. "Botan!? Are you still alive in there? We have plans to discus!"

He growled again and got off Botan so she could go stop her friend from just walking in. "Coming Bulma!" She bolted for the door without looking back and nearly collided with Bulma when she got outside. "L-let's go a little further away than the pool…" Was all she could manage to say, while trying to grasp what had just happened with Hiei. As soon as they had gotten inside the house, Botan collapsed to her knees. "I don't think it'll be as hard to seduce him as I originally thought it would."

Bulma gave her a questioning look until she noticed the slightly red splotches on her neck, "Oh well then that's good! Your planet should be quite safe then. After those warriors are taken care of." Botan blushed a bright red and coughed nervously, "Yes…well…I think he's a little TOO eager. I wish I could call Kurama and see if…Kurama!" Botan jumped up angrily with a pout on her face as she put two and two together, "Kurama KNEW this would happen! I bet he's the one who shoved Hiei through the trees when I was bathing too…when I get my hands on that jerk!"

Bulma bit back some giggles as Botan continued to pout about her friend tricking her. "Relax Botan. Obviously this means that the prophecy really did mean you. You're lucky anyway." Botan stopped pouting and looked at the other bluette in confusion, "How am I lucky?" "Because," Bulma sighed, "your guy looks at you. I've been trying to get Vegeta's attention for months already and nothing! The only thing he's worried about is killing Goku. Which is never going to happen." Botan sighed at Bulma's story, "Wow…that's sad he must be like blind or something."

The two girls talked for hours until the sun began to set and the clock chimed six times. "Uh oh…we should have started dinner an hour ago…we don't have time to make nearly enough food now." Botan shrugged and slouched down on the couch, "Maybe we could order pizza? Does his might highness Mr. prince-of-the-Saiyans like pizza?" She asked, hoping that they could order pizza. "He's never had it before. But it's our best option. We'll order five pizzas from about four different places and that should be enough…" As Bulma rushed off to order the pizzas, Botan let herself fall over on the couch.

Even though she wasn't going to get any technology from Bulma, she still felt over whelmed from all the new things she had heard. The thought of her crush; which she had given up on, on Hiei actually having a future with a high probability of happiness, was just too amazing for her to believe. Bulma walked back into the living room, pulling money out of her purse and setting it in four piles. "There, now we can keep relaxing until the food arrives. Of course, you'll have to bring Hiei his food, since he doesn't seem to want to come out of that gravity chamber."

The blue haired deity shot up at the mention of Hiei and groaned, "But what if he kisses me again?! I know we've been talking about what I should do for a while now, but I doubt you want us to have sex in that thing." Bulma frowned and nodded, "Right…I could give you that gravity chamber, and make a new one for Vegeta if his breaks." Botan shook her head with a sigh; "If we bring that thing back Koenma will want to use it to train body guards and such." Bulma frowned again and sighed, "I could give you a second capsule that holds a cabin…it would fit inside the gravity chamber."

Botan nodded, "That might work…although maybe I should just wait for a while before having sex with him…there's no harm in waiting." Yes she liked the stubborn demon, she almost loved him, but she didn't want to rush into anything yet. "Why wait? You're one of those marriage before sex people, aren't you." Botan squirmed in her seat and shrugged awkwardly, "Well…I'm of one of those never had sex before people…" Bulma gasped, "You're a virgin?! How old are you?" "Ummm 19…" "You are more than old enogh." "I-I d-don't know...it's so sudden..." Botan stuttered nervously. Bulma laughed.

"Well, I don't think you should wait. You're an adult, go for it!" Botan blushed at her friend's statement and was about to argue her side when the doorbell rang. "Oh pizza's here!" Bulma jumped up and ran to the door so Botan couldn't argue, and when she came back five minutes later, she had all twenty pizzas from the four different places. "Here's one pizza, take it out to Hiei, and eat it with him." She handed Botan one of the pizzas and pushed her towards Hiei's gravity chamber, handing her the second capsule as well.

Botan made her way towards the gravity chamber, feeling _very_ nervous. She opened the door and walked in, surprised that it felt like the gravity level hadn't even changed. She made her way over to the table with the pizza, ignoring Hiei's eyes following her, and she glanced at the screen. 100X earth's gravity. There was no way she should have been still standing! _'Maybe it's because I'm a ferry girl?'_ She thought, shrugging off the odd situation.

"I brought pizza. Y'know, just in case you want to eat something that qualifies as food for dinner." She pulled a piece out of the box and took a bite, it wasn't too bad. Hiei stood there, watching her eat for a minute, puzzled by how she was acting so normal, like what happened earlier hadn't even happened. She had either accepted it or just wanted to deny it. He had been hoping that maybe she'd have been a little flustered by it, but nope.

He walked over to her, leaving his sword where he'd been standing, and removed the pizza box and empty plate from the table, surprising Botan. "Hiei…what are you do…" She was cut off when he pulled her head down so she was eye level with him. His eyes were swimming with emotions she hadn't known he was capable of feeling, love, need, desire…a few she didn't know. He climbed on top of the table, and positioned himself so he was straddling her. He brought his lips to hers hard and pushed her back on the table. The sensations running through her body just from his kiss almost made her forget about the cabin capsule in her hand.

He released her lips from his plundering of her body and grunted her name. "Botan…" She snapped back to reality when she heard her name and tightened her grip on the capsule in her hand. "Onna, can I love you?" He asked huskily as he began to kiss her neck much in the same fashion he had earlier. She could barely find the strength to speak as he made her shiver in pleasure, "Not…in here…" She used every bit of her still sane mind to press the button on the capsule and toss it into the center of the gravity chamber.

He stopped kissing her soft neck and looked at the small cabin that had appeared. "And just why do you have that, Botan?" She blushed under his gaze and mumbled "Bulma handed it to me and said I could have it…I forgot to leave it inside…" He chuckled at her and brought his face within an inch of hers, "Can I love you in there, Botan?" He asked sensually, relishing the shiver that ran over her body and knowing he had caused it.

She was starting to get second thoughts about this whole thing. Maybe they weren't ready for sex? It could ruin the whole relationship, _'What relationship? Him throwing insults at me, and always trying to scare and hurt me?'_ Her thoughts caused her shoulders to seize up and Hiei noted the sudden tension. "What's wrong onna?" She looked away from him and sighed, "Nothing…it's just…don't you think you're going a little fast?" She had to say it, it was just bothering her so much. The only way she'd let him continue is if he said three little words.

"No I don't." Three little words. But not the ones she had been praying to hear from him. She was about to sit up and push him off of her when he forced her to look him in the eyes and continued, "I know about the prophecy onna, and you've only got a week left." He climbed off of her and walked over to the cabin, pushed a button and it became a capsule again. He tossed it back to her and left the gravity chamber.

Alone. That's how she felt now. And stupid too, can't forget stupid. How did she think Hiei hadn't known the whole time? She should have realized when he first kissed her back at the hot spring. Was that why he was trying to make things go so fast? Did he not want to be the oppressive, self-centered ruler he was supposed to become? Did he want to bring great happiness to the three worlds? Or did he just want lustful satisfaction on top of becoming the evil and hating ruler?

Oh she was so beyond confused. She glanced at the gravity controls and stood up, maybe she should do what Hiei does to relax, train until she feels two thirds dead. She walked over and cranked the gravity up until it became strenuous for her to move. 600X earth's gravity. That's how strong it had to be before it restricted her movements, all because she wasn't fully human.

Without hesitating, she began to jab and kick at the air, knowing she was being sloppy but not truly caring.

Bulma watched from inside the house as Hiei walked out of the gravity chamber.

He pulled his communicator out of his pocket and called Kurama. The fox had better help this time. **'Hiei?' **The fire demon snorted, "No it's Kuwabaka. Who the hell else would it be?!" Kurama groaned at his friend's tone, **'What's wrong now?' **"The baka onna won't let me!" He didn't even have to ask what Hiei meant, **'And what do you think yelling at me is going to accomplish? You want me to go talk to her?' **"Hn, yes. She seems to listen to you."

Kurama sighed and shut his communicator, what excuse could he use to leave this time? He didn't have time to think of an answer because his mother knocked on the door and entered with knowing smile on her face. "So that's what you've been doing. You're helping your short friend with his girlfriend? You could have just told me that, sweetie, I'd have understood." He looked at his mother and smiled in thanks, "Thank you mother. I promise this won't take long." He practically ran out of the house and headed back to the same alley he'd been using since his first trip there.

When he stepped through the portal he almost tripped from the excessive gravity. "Botan?!" She stopped her sloppy training and turned to face him, only no smile greeted him. She looked frustrated and confused, but not happy to see him. "What do you want?" She crossed her arms and sat down on the floor, a movement that he followed. "Hiei called me." She rolled her eyes, knowing what was coming next. "I thought you liked him Botan? He said you wouldn't umm…let him…" She scowled and tightened her arms, "Let him what? Fuck me? No I wouldn't."

She didn't even blush as she finished his sentence, although he did at her choice of words. "That's not how he put it, is it? He better not have said it like that, I told him to be nice!" She narrowed her eyes at her red headed friend and he gulped, "You told him to be nice? Is that what you've been doing this whole time? Pretending to care, then giving him tips on how to get me in bed?!" "I-well-no…I…" She stood up suddenly, grabbed his arm, dragged him over to the door and threw him out. He didn't land two feet away like she'd expected; instead he crashed into the same tree Hiei had chosen to sit in, brining him crashing to the ground.

"I hope that hurt you idiots!" She shouted before slamming the door shut. Bulma watched the whole thing unravel before her and she cursed inwardly. What the heck had happened? She ran outside to where the two guys were attempting to stand up, "What the heck happened? She was happy less then an hour ago! And where did you come from?" She asked, eyeing the red haired man whom she had definitely not seen before. "I'm Kurama." "Oh you're the friend from Makai that she was ticked at earlier because she figured out you were behind everything. Maybe she'd mad because you're here."

She was about to head into the gravity chamber when Kurama stopped her, "Wait…um, would you be willing to help us out? I've been trying to convince Botan to tell Hiei her feelings, but I don't think she's listening because I'm not a girl…could you maybe talk to her for us?" Bulma sighed at the hopeless guys; "All men are incompetent and blind, aren't they? I'll tell you what, Hiei agrees to teach her how to fight and things will get better from there. Deal?"

Kurama nodded before Hiei even had time to process what he had to do, "Of course he'll do that." She walked off to the gravity chamber and knocked an the door, "Who's there?!" "It's Bulma!" The door opened and Botan skipped out happily, "Hello Bulma, how is your evening going?" Bulma sighed and shrugged, "Aside from the ninnies on my lawn, fine. Can I ask how yours went?" Botan shrugged, "Fine until Hiei told me he already knew about the prophecy. Now I don't know if he's trying to fuck me because he doesn't want to be evil, or because he wants to do it before he becomes evil and can force me to be his sex toy."

Bulma's eyes widened as Botan spoke, "He KNOWS? And he fricking told you? What is he, stupid?! And what about you?!" She took a deep breath, "You turned him down because you're not sure?! Sex is sex girl; you should try it sometime. It's fun. And you'd better not be too tired because Hiei agreed to train you and you've got a good two hours before I come fetch you because I have to set up spare room for you ." Bulma walked off towards the boys before Botan could say anything. Surprisingly enough that calmed her down enough to think clearly and discover that Bulma was right.

Bulma walked over to the boys grinning. "There you go. Hiei I'd suggest you hurry your ass over there if you want to spend time with her. Just, no sex tonight buddy; a woman's advice can only work so many times on the same subject." She walked back into the house and shut the door, leaving Hiei and Kurama with a blush on their cheeks. "Do all girls have to be so blunt?" They stood there for a moment until they noticed the gravity chamber was still open, "Hiei get in there! And remember no umm…sex…" Kurama pushed his friend towards the gravity chamber.

Hiei walked grudgingly over the ground until he reached the gravity chamber where Botan was leaning against the door, scowling at him. "No funny business buddy." He shrugged and walked into the gravity chamber, just about falling on his hands and knees from the weight of the gravity. "How high do you have this thing set baka onna?!" He asked with frustration as he tried to right himself. "600X earth's gravity. Why, not strong enough for it big boy?" She skipped over to the table, which once again had the pizza box sitting on it, and began to eat a slice of pizza while watching Hiei struggle with the gravity.

That's how Bulma found them two hours later. Botan was eating pizza and Hiei was struggling to move. Bulma wisely chose to wait outside until she figured out why he was trying to push himself off the floor. "Botan! Did you kick him in the nuts?" Botan turned her attention from Hiei to Bulma, grinning she jumped off the table and walked over to her friend, "Nah. I just set the gravity really, _really_ high. My people are accustomed to great amounts of gravity, his aren't. It's great entertainment to see him struggling to stand up though."

Bulma groaned and cradled her head in her hands, "Botan…you were supposed be learning how to fight, not torturing him. I feel much less guilty about giving you the guestroom with one bed now. I hope you two enjoy it." Hiei looked up at the two girls in time to see Botan groan in defeat. "Bulma! It had better be a BIG bed…" "Mmmm…sorry, it's only a single." Botan's jaw nearly hit the floor at her friend's boldness, "But there's two of us! How the hell will we fit on a single?!"

Bulma smiled sweetly at her friend, "Well somebody's gonna have to be on top. You'd better choose quickly, it's time for bed. Now help him out of there." Botan walked over to Hiei scowling again and pulled him to his feet and out of the gravity chamber. As soon as he could stand properly again he growled at her, "Baka onna! You're lucky I don't kill you for that!" She rolled her eyes and scoffed at him, "Lead the way Bulma. I want to get some sleep."

Sighing at her difficult friend, Bulma led the way into the house and towards the guestroom she'd prepared. It was not a single bed. It was a double. "Ok I lied, it's a double. But it'll still be pretty cramped if you two drag your ego's to bed with you." Botan sighed as Bulma left the room, shutting the door behind her. Hiei turned to her and she shivered at the look in his eyes, but it was a different kind of shiver then from before. It was a shiver of guilt. Bulma's words earlier were still swarming in her mind as she and Hiei both stood there, staring at each other.

And what about you?! You turned him down because you're not sure?! Sex is sex girl; you should try it sometime. It's fun.

She was pulled from her thoughts when Hiei started walking towards her, for a moment she thought he was going to walk right by, but he stopped in front of her. "Onna, Botan…I…" She decided she had to tell him what she'd figured. "Hiei…I like you, lots, it might be love I don't know…but I don't think I'm ready for sex just yet." He was taken aback by her words, and forgot to finish what he was about to say. He pulled her into a warm embrace, burying his head in the crook of her neck, "You may be uncertain Botan, but I know I love you." 

He felt a sharp tug at his heart as she pulled out the embrace, but it only lasted until she leaned down and kissed him. He felt like his lips were on fire, and vaguely he wondered if this is what she had felt when he had kissed her before. It was like an odd sense, one that you only got when you didn't initiate or expect the kiss. She pulled back from the kiss and walked over to the bed, she didn't realize until she got to it that what she was wearing would be a bad choice to sleep in. But she didn't have much else to chose from.

She saw Hiei take off his shirt and pants, leaving only boxers, and decided she should probably do the same or else she'd wake up with bruises. She felt Hiei's eyes on her as she removed her shorts and decided to just keep on the T-shirt. She pulled back the covers on the bed and pushed herself as close to the far side of the bed as she could, leaving Hiei just barely enough room to lay down. The bed may not have been a single, but it was just like a child's double. It could have held two children comfortably, but not two adults.

They shifted around, trying to get more comfortable until they both fell off the bed. "This bed's too small…how are we both supposed to sleep on it?" Botan grumbled as she stood up then flopped herself down on the bed. "If I lay on top a bit, we could fit, Botan." She gave him a wary look and sighed, "Fine…whatever…just hurry it up because I'm tired." He climbed onto the bed, arranging himself so the left half of his body was draped over her. He pulled the covers over them and they went to sleep.

Somehow during the night, their positions had changed slightly, and Botan had turned towards him, her lips resting at the crook of his neck, her arms were wrapped around his neck and her legs had intertwined with his. Hiei's face was buried in her hair, his lips resting on her ear softly, and his arms wrapped tightly around her waist. Bulma knocked on the door, having come to fetch them for breakfast, and entered when she heard no reply. When she saw their positions, she ran and grabbed a camera, praying they wouldn't move. She got back with the camera and grinned, they hadn't moved an inch. She snapped a few shots until Hiei's eyes started to open, and he shifted so the sun wasn't shining on his eyes.

Bulma hid the camera quickly and cleared her throat; "Lunch is ready if you two ever want to get out of bed today." She lied, hoping for him to do something. "Go away…sleeping…" He yawned and closed his eyes, burying his face into Botan's neck affectionately. Bulma sighed and left the room. Maybe he just needed to let her words sink in.

Botan felt something warm pressing against her entire body, and warm air fanning her neck. She opened her mauve eyes and all she could see was skin and a little bit of black hair. _'What the hell? Is that Hiei? I didn't know he was so warm…or so soft…" _She tried to sit up, but felt a great deal of weight holding her down. She looked down and saw that Hiei was practically lying on top of her. Oddly enough, this felt right to her, having him so close, and feeling his breath on her neck was adding onto the reactions her body was having because of his close proximity.

She shifted nervously, trying to get out of his arms before he woke up. She remained unsuccessful, and he continued to pull her closer. She didn't even know he was already awake. Hiei was getting annoyed at her attempts to pull herself out of his arms and he growled softly, shifting his arms so she was pressed flat against him. "Botan stop moving, I'm trying to sleep." He murmured directly into her ear, sending more of those delicious shivers down her body.

Botan didn't know if he was being affected in the same way she was, by the closeness, but she was worried if she didn't move now she might start something. She tried to wiggle out of his arms, "I need to use the umm washroom…?" She panted slightly as she spoke, making him open his eyes. He could hear it in her voice; she _liked_ being this close, and her body wants more of it. He smirked at her and she groaned to herself, "No you don't. You just can't handle being so close, and wanting more." He tightened his grip and she fell against him completely. "It's okay to want more Botan." He whispered before crashing his lips to hers.

She was so taken aback that he'd realized her idea of getting away that she didn't realize his hands were sliding down her back, heading to cup her butt. She felt his tongue on her lower lip and was about to refuse to open her mouth when his hands found her butt. He gave a light squeeze and she gasped, giving him entrance into her mouth. His tongue gently explored every crevasse, and danced with her tongue. She completely lost herself in the kiss and began to respond to it. She had totally forgotten her resolve from last night.

When he finally released her mouth from his plundering kiss she was gasping for breath. "Ready for more, Botan?" She couldn't say anything, her voice had up and left with her resolve. She didn't know whether or not this was right, but she knew she didn't care. She opened her mouth trying to say yes, to tell him to keep going, but the words kept dying in her throat, so she grabbed his head and pulled him back to her lips, hoping he'd take that as a 'yes'. He watched her attempt to say something, and smirked when she pulled him back down to her face instead. He stopped letting her pull him towards her mouth about two inches from her lips, wanting to make her come the rest of the way.

She tried to bring his face closer, but he wasn't letting her. She figured this was payback for the gravity chamber last night, so she fought to find her voice. Before she could say anything, Hiei lost his patience in waiting for her to move and kissed her. As he moved his lips gently on hers, he let his hands travel to the bottom of her shirt, which was crumpled against her stomach, and pulled it up slowly. He was afraid that if he made any quick movements she might freak out and leave.

Botan stayed still as he removed her shirt, and in the back of her mind she panicked. She panicked because she didn't want to stop him, she didn't want to cover her body desperately, and she wanted sex. He stopped after he removed her shirt, and he sat up. He could feel her muscles tense up as he removed the shirt and the last thing he wanted to do was a rape her. Botan locked eyes with him when he sat up, and she was afraid he might be leaving, so she grabbed his hands and tried to pull him back down.

He was shocked by her actions to say the least, and nearly lost his balance, but managed to catch himself before he crushed her. He smirked as a blush stained her face and placed a chaste kiss on her lips before getting up and leaving the room. Now _that_ was payback.

Botan watched him leave and felt her heart break a little. He didn't want her? Was she inadequit in his eyes? She fought back a couple tears and put her shirt and shorts back on before climbing out of the bed and heading out the door, towards the kitchen. As soon as she stepped through the doorway she regretted it. Bulma was sitting on the counter, and Vegeta…well, he wasn't acting too royal. Botan ran from the room as quickly as she could, trying to get the image out of her mind; Bulma making out with Vegeta. Not what she wanted to see after Hiei just rejected her. '_Stupid prick head. Who fucking cares if he has the fate of the three worlds in his hands? I'll die before I let him touch me again.'_ She thought bitterly to herself.

Despite how much she was enjoying the kiss, Bulma pulled away from Vegeta when she spotted Botan make her distraut(sp?) exit from the kitchen. Vegeta smirked at her and left to do some training in his gravity room. Bulma jumped off the counter and went to find Botan; she had a feeling something had gone wrong with Hiei. She found Botan sitting in the hallway with her back pressed against a wall, staring blankly at the carpet. "Botan? What's wrong?" The blue haired deity glanced up at her fellow bluette and sighed. "H-he rejected me…he…we…we were going to…and then he just got up and left. I didn't say anything mean, we didn't argue…he just kissed me, stood up and left!" Bulma sighed and sat down beside her friend. "Well…I guess demons are very similar to saiyans. Vegeta does the same from time to time. Like just now in the kitchen…"

Botan nodded and rested her face in her hands, "What am I going to do now Bulma?" Her voice was muffled but Bulma heard it clearly, "Why go shopping of course. We have the best mall here for clothes and stuff." Botan raised her head out of her hands and smiled weakly. "Maybe my card will work here." She pulled the small gold card out of an inside pocket in her shirt and handed it to Bulma, who checked it over and nodded. "It just may…Now c'mon. Those boys won't know what's hit them when they see us later." Bulma pulled Botan up and out of the house.

-

Roughly six hours later, both the girls stumbled in the front door, slightly drunk, and carrying about fifty bags each. Vegeta and Hiei had been waiting in the kitchen for over an hour, wondering where the hell the girls had gone to. Botan dropped all her bags and started giggling, "Oh man, Koenma is going to kill me when he sees the bill for my card!" Bulma started laughing with her friend, "I bet he will! And where did you put all that liquor? You drank soooo much!" The two boys heard the ruckus and made their way towards the entrance hall, and the giggling girls.

"Baka onna where the bloody hell have you been! The baka toddler called an hour ago!" Botan blinked stupidly and pointed a finger at Hiei, "I was having fun…y-you jerk…Hah I don't care if-if Koenma called! I quit!" She grabbed her bags and pushed her way past Hiei, attempting to find her way to the small room she had been in last night. "Botan! Wait up!" Bulma called out, following her friend down the hall. Hiei and Vegeta exchanged a look, they had figured out that they had much in common…including power levels. And certain interests in their respective blue haired women. It's amazing what one annoying saiyan and one telepathic demon could find out about each other; while attempting to kill one another.

Botan and Bulma made it into the room that Botan and Hiei had shared, and burst into very sober laughter. "Nice acting there Botan. Very convincing." Botan winked and dropped the bags on the floor, "Hey, a girls gotta be convincing sometimes. I wonder how long I can pull it off." Bulma rolled her eyes, "Probably only until you try to drag him onto the bed."

Botan nodded, remembering the plan she and Bulma had cooked up, "Well…at least you have to try and drag your princy boy to bed too. So I may not be the only one who looks like a fool tonight." The girls extracted two identical bags from their mass of purchases and grinned at each other. This was going to be fun. They heard footsteps coming down the hall and regained their drunken stature just before Hiei and Vegeta entered the room scowling.

"Oh Veggie-head, who pissed in your Cornflakes-smile or you'll die young!" Bulma said tauntingly. She already knew exactly why he was pissed; he hadn't eaten since breakfast and with that saiyan appetite of his, he was bound to be half starved to death. Botan rolled her eyes at Hiei's scowl. "Youkai. Your type never smiles. You must be related to the saiyans." "Just shut up and go make food you incompetent onna's." Vegeta bit out, making both girls flinch. As soon as he and Hiei left the room, Botan raised an eyebrow at Bulma and asked, "Are you sure you want _**THAT**_ man? Surely there must be better men here on earth?" Bulma shook her head, "He's as good as they get; besides he's not even from earth, he's from Vegetsai."

Shrugging Botan left the room, with Bulma following close behind, and they made their way to the kitchen to cook something for the ever so temperamental boys. "Botan; are _you_ sure you want _**that**_ demon?" The deity spun around and looked at Bulma shocked, "Well I don't get much of a choice now do I? It's pretty much do or die for me." Bulma nodded, "I suppose it is. Then the question I should ask you I guess, is, would you rather die a virgin, or save countless lives? Selfish versus selfless."

Hiei and Vegeta had been listening to the conversation between the girls since they had left the bedroom. To be honest, Vegeta was surprised Bulma didn't really seem to hate him. And Hiei, well, he hadn't known Botan was a virgin; nor had he known that the prophecy really affected her decision so much. Being the conceited male he was, he'd always just assumed she was madly in love with him, just waiting to be graced with his attention or touch.

Botan sighed, "Well, I think it's probably going to turn out that I die a virgin as I'm not letting that baka touch my body again. He's had his chance." They heard an irritated growl and a burst of deep, dark laughter from the living room and went bright red. It hadn't occurred to either of them that the boys might be listening. Botan groaned and smacked her forehead with her palm just as Hiei burst into the kitchen angrily. "Baka ferry onna! You should be pinning for me! You're a filthy weakling, and yet I allow you the privilege of touching my body!" He wasn't sure where that all came from, but when he heard her say he'd lost his chance at her, he just snapped and something feral took over.

Bulma watched, shocked, as Botan glared angrily at Hiei, "Well excuse ME for not fawning over your body you jack ass. Just because you're stronger than me doesn't mean I want you! If it weren't for the fucking prophecy I'd have let Koenma send Yusuke to kill you!" She screamed and shoved him out of her personal space before stomping out of the kitchen. Bulma was having an odd sense of de-ja-vu; it was just like watching herself fight with Vegeta. Pathetic. She ran out after her friend and decided in her mind maybe Botan was right. Men like that weren't worth it.

Botan had made it all the way to the gravity chambers outside when Bulma caught up with her. "He had no right to talk down to you like that." She said softly, and Botan growled, "Damn right he didn't. I don't know why I ever liked that jerk. He only ever insults me." Bulma nodded in agreement, "Vegeta is the same way. I bet we could find way better men. I suppose Krillin isn't so bad…and Yamcha's taken a shine to you…all you have to do is put blinders on him so he can't see other women…" Both girls nodded together, and sat in silence for a moment before sobbing. "But I don't _want_ a yes-man!" They both shouted at the same time, and held onto each other as they wailed.

* * *

End of chapter four.

The spelling and grammar should be pretty good. Every time I went to add onto this fic (in total, it's 48 pages long) I read what I already had and fixed any mistakes. R&R

You'd better really like this chapter. It's given me HELL just trying to POST IT! Stupid internet!


	5. Chapter 5

Hair dark as midnight, eyes so cold you would hardly see the colour before you died, and a temper most foul. These are what describe two people from different worlds, who are about to collide in a very unusual way.

**_Who is that man?_**

**_Chapter five_**

* * *

Vegeta glared at Hiei, after paying only enough attention to come to the conclusion that Bulma was no longer interested in him, "You moron! Now you've ruined both our chances!" Hiei just stood there, trying to keep himself from transforming into the green, multi-eyed demon he knew would just rape Botan to teach her respect. After he gained control of himself he stomped out side, not really sure what he was going to do. He saw both the girls sobbing and holding each other and froze in his tracks. He felt his anger ebb away, to be replaced quickly with deep guilt. He hadn't meant to make her cry.

Vegeta crossed his arms over his chest, how in the hell would he be able to turn this around so he got laid and the baka demon didn't? A smirk spread evilly over his face, perhaps he could even steal the affections of the demon's mate with this plan. He walked up to Hiei, and said in a deadly calm voice, "You shouldn't disrespect a woman so; have you no honor?" In the blink of an eye, Hiei, Botan and Bulma were starring at Vegeta, shocked as all hell…well Hiei was glaring. "I have more honor than you." He spat back at the prince.

Both the girls gasped, and were almost swept away by the display of two hansom men fighting over honor, until they remembered exactly why they had just been crying. They were about to yell at the boys when a fistfight broke out. Botan screamed in frustration as Vegeta punched the lights out of Hiei, and Hiei responded by kicking Vegeta none-too-gently in the stomach.

The boys narrowed their eyes at one another, and exchanged a minute smirk before collapsing at the same time. Botan and Bulma waited a couple seconds before approaching the apparently unconscious boys, and exchanged a nervous look. Should they bother attempting to drag them inside? Botan looked between the two unconscious forms and got a good idea. A devious idea. "Bulma; you know what? I think these boys are just gonna be too heavy to move…but they might get cold out here." Bulma seemed confused for a moment, but caught onto the gleam in Botan's red, puffy eyes. "Alright, I getcha. But let's do it quick so we can go have nice, long, hot bubble baths inside." At the exchange of a wink, they pushed the 'unconscious' boys together and wrapped their arms around one another.

As soon as the girls had bound into the house, the boys sprung apart and glared at each other, "You plan was terrible you saiyan." Hiei spat out as he shivered in disgust, "My plan was perfect; you over acted, and your baka mate screwed it up."

--

Botan and Bulma woke up the next morning, sprawled out on the floor in Bulma's room, several empty tubs of ice cream around them. "I feel much better, how about you?" Bulma lifted her head and groaned, "My eyes hurt. Don't yours? You were crying more than I was." Botan nodded, and sat up, stretching her back. "Yeah, they hurt…and I'm sure I look like hell, but I feel better." The girls stood up together and walked into Bulma's en-suite bathroom and laughed at themselves when they looked in the mirror. Their faces were red and streaked with dried tears, and their eyes were really red, but that could be fixed quickly enough.

Hiei and Vegeta had both woken up at the crack of dawn, and met in the kitchen. "Hn. We need a better plan." Neither of them was very good at this kind of thing, which may have contributed to why they were so close to losing their women.

--

Thirty minutes later they both emerged from the bathroom looking about ten times better then before they had cried. "Bulma…Hiei turns 20 in five days…what should I do?" Bulma glanced at her friend, who looked desperate for an answer, "Well; what do you want to do?" "I want to talk to him…without your Vegeta there to provoke him." Bulma sighed, "So you want me to find some way to distract Vegeta for what, 20 minutes?" Botan nodded with a sigh. "But first we can relax and try on every single outfit we bought yesterday!" "Now that's what I like to hear!" They giggled and dove into the big pile of bags, trying on tons of clothes.

Hiei and Vegeta were sparring out in the yard when Botan and Bulma walked outside, wearing mid thigh length skirts, and matching blue tank tops. Hiei felt the blood rushing to his face, and he swore he was about to have a nosebleed. Vegeta could already feel the blood slowly dripping down the inside of his nose. Never once had Bulma worn that combination. Botan did it all the time, but usually not around Hiei. The boys exchanged a look of excitement, and waited impatiently for the girls to approach them.

Botan and Bulma walked as slowly as they could; knowing it was torture for the boys. Bulma grabbed Vegeta's arm when she reached him, and dragged him away so Botan and Hiei could chat.

--

Vegeta just let Bulma pull him along until they were out of sight of Hiei and Botan, then he took charge and pinned her against the outside of her house, kissing her hungrily.

Hiei could feel his inner demon screaming to jump her and make her his mate right then and there. "Hiei, we need to talk." She said, barely above a whisper, she was really nervous about this. "Hn." Was his reply, and she shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, "I guess I'll just say it straight out. I want you Hiei."

--

Bulma was a little bit shocked as he pushed his tongue into her mouth, but then again, that was the point of the outfits. Better results with the least work. Men were so predictable and she loved it.

He just blinked and stared at her for a moment, "You what?" He'd thought he was going to have to end up doing some major ass kissing; he thought she'd still be pissed. Botan sighed and prepared to repeat herself. "I. Want. You. I did a lot of thinking last night while Bulma and I ate 10 gallons of ice cream." His heart jumped and he reached out to her, "So if I touch you like this," He whispered as he rested his hands on the sides of her breasts and slowly let them glide downwards as he spoke, "then that is okay?"

--

She felt him take hold of her shirt as his tongue explored her mouth, and she moaned. He wasn't going fast enough now. At this rate he might realize her intentions. So, taking matters (or rather his shirt) into her own hands, she had his shirt whipped off and caressed his beautifully sculpted chest softly.

She nodded, a large blush staining her cheeks. "You still love me, right Hiei?" She asked, just wanting to hear it one more time before resigning herself to him. "Of cour…" a loud, obnoxious whistle cut him off.

--

Bulma's shirt was almost off when they heard the loud whistle. Curious, and her mood totally wrecked, she pushed Vegeta off of her and rushed around the building to see a few strange people standing by Botan and Hiei. _'Damn'_

Hiei pushed Botan away from his body so fast she fell backwards and landed on her ass. She looked up at him evilly; ignoring the familiar aura's around them. "You jerk! _'Of course I love you! Just as long as no one I know sees it!'_ I hate you." She jumped up and ran towards the house, passing Bulma and a topless Vegeta on her way.

Hiei cringed as she chewed him out, he hadn't _meant_ to push her like that; it was just a reflex. He turned to the person whom had let out the whistle and growled menacingly, "You baka! I'll kill you for that!"

"Oh Hiei shut up. You're in a lot of shit with Koenma right now buddy; he saw you two kissing." Hiei lashed out at his 'friends' in front of him, managing to hit Yusuke and Kuwabara, but just barely missing Kurama. "Hn, why should I care if the baka toddler saw that?"

--

Bulma and Vegeta watched from what they deemed a safe distance, as Hiei lashed out at the people that had interrupted everything. What was going on?

"Hiei, it seems that…uh…Koenma has had his eye on Botan for a while now." Hiei shot a dark glare at Kurama, "And why should I care?"

Botan locked herself in the closest bathroom, and listened to the not so quiet voices outside. She was shocked to say the least; she had never even imagined that Koenma thought her as more than a sister. Maybe she'd be better off beside him instead of Hiei?

--

"I think I should go find Botan before too much damage is done to her and Hiei's relationship." Bulma said sternly and walked into the house, looking for Botan.

Botan stood up purposefully, and opened the door, intent on going outside, but crashed into Bulma first. "Sorry!" She squeaked out of surprise. "It's fine. Why did you run in here?" Bulma asked, with more than a hint of worry taking over.

"Well," Botan started, a little nervous and a little embarrassed, "Yusuke, -Kuwabara-and-Kurama-showed-up-just-when-Hiei-was-about-to-say-he-loved-me, -and-he-pushed-me-away-and-I-fell-down-and-got-mad-and-yelled-at-him…"

Bulma sighed and nodded, "Understandable. I've done that before. Best thing to do is got out there, apologize, then kick your friends back wherever they came from so you and Hiei can be alone and give it another shot." Botan groaned at her friend, "It's not that easy Bulma…I told him I hated him…" "Oh…not good."

--

Yusuke sighed, "Well, don't feel bad you little short-shit. At least you can hide out here a bit until we get Koenma distracted." Kuwabara nodded and winked at Hiei, "Yeah shrimp, we can all tell Botan likes you better than that brat. We'll look out for our sister there if you do it here."

Hiei was shocked, slightly disgusted, but mostly shocked. They were going to do that? Was it for him and Botan, or just Botan though? Kurama, sensing the questions running through Hiei's mind, chuckled at his friend. "You know you are an important friend and team member Hiei. Botan is like our sister, and we've all noticed how relaxed you are around her. That tape of yesterday morning was proof enough."

Hiei felt his face start to go red, so the toddler was mad because of that? They'd done a little more then kiss. "Oh." Was all he could say. The whole thing was rather over whelming.

Botan and Bulma stepped outside after devising a 'plan of attack', and walked over to Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama. "H-hey guys…" Botan stammered, they were all looking at her with a creepy intensity. "Botan, can Yusuke, Kuwabara and I have a chat with you in private?" Kurama asked her calmly, and she shivered, "I don't see why not…"

She nervously let them lead her out of Hiei's hearing range before they all hugged her. "Botan, you're like a sister to the three of us. Alright?" She nodded, not sure where this was going, "Well, does Hiei make you really happy?"

She bit her lip and nodded discretely, "Y-yes…he can be hurtful sometimes…but I love him." She tried to keep her voice low enough to prevent any one else from hearing. "We're not here to collect you like Koenma thinks we are." She turned her eyes from her feet to Yusuke, "You're not?" He shook his head, and she felt Kuwabara put his hand on her shoulder, "We came to tell you and Hiei to hide out here for a while. Koenma just needs some sense pounded into him."

She couldn't believe them. They were risking a lot for her and Hiei. "Thank you. Thank you so much." She said softly, tears forming in her eyes, "You just have to do one thing before we go," Yusuke said with a tone he often used just before being slapped by Keiko. "Give shrimp a kiss, and apologize so we know this ain't all so you can ignore one another."

Botan blushed a deep red but nodded, agreeing to do it. That was, after all, the plan she and Bulma had come up with. "Okay." She walked back towards Hiei purposefully, and forced herself to look him in the eyes the whole way. She stopped a couple inches in front of him and took a deep breath.

"Hiei." "Onna." They started talking at the same time, and paused, each waiting for the other to go first. "I'm sorry!" She cried out as she flung herself at him and locked her arms tightly around his neck. "I didn't mean it! I love you." She whispered into his ear. "Onna-Botan-I love you too." She could feel his breath against her neck and felt her whole body shiver. She shifted so she could kiss him lightly on the lips, and this time none of their friends whistled obnoxiously.

Bulma watched everything, from start to end, and felt like her heart was ready to burst with joy. Until she remembered that those other three had pulled her away from her topless prince. So she cleared her throat loudly, capturing the attention of everyone, including Vegeta whom had been watching from the shadows.

Kurama caught on first and gulped slightly. He'd met Bulma before after all, and she could be just like Botan. "O-okay guys…Let's get back before Koenma gets suspicious." He said quickly before making a portal and pushing Yusuke and Kuwabara through it.

Vegeta walked out to Bulma, and the still kissing couple, as soon as the strange and annoying people were gone. "Onna, I demand sustenance." Bulma sighed, more disappointed that he had put his shirt back on and was back to demanding food. The least he could've done was leave his shirt off, she rather liked his muscles. "Fine. But I'm not cooking all the food, so you'll just have to wait until they are done." She said jokingly as she pointed her thumb at Hiei and Botan, who were kissing a little bit deeper.

The feelings running through Botan's body were impossible for her to ignore, and Hiei's lips and tongue were increasing those feelings ten fold. She vaguely recognized a voice, but it took a second to register what was said. _"Fine. But I'm not cooking all the food, so you'll just have to wait until they are done."_ She groaned regretfully as she slowly found to will to pull away from Hiei. Hiei, on the other hand, didn't seem to want to let her go. Although he did pull back from the kiss long enough to shoot a glare that clearly screamed 'a-little-privacy-now'.

Bulma sighed as he started kissing Botan again and turned around she didn't have to see that. "Well, you're going to be waiting a while for your food." Vegeta stopped scowling as a thought came to his mind, _'There is always something we can do to pass the time.'_ He was about to act on his instinctual idea of how to pass the time when Bulma sighed and started to walk away. She did not want to see Hiei and Botan making out if she couldn't have her prince, and he was so caught up with his hunger (for food, or so she though) that he wouldn't be interested in that.

Hiei was getting rather annoyed that Bulma and Vegeta were not leaving, so he took Botan into his arms and jumped into the closest tree out of habit. Botan felt the bark against her back, Hiei's lips travelling down her neck, and heard a loud snap.

Bulma had barely made it to the front door when she heard the branch snap, and Botan's momentary scream. When she whirled around, she saw Hiei and Botan lying under a few heavy-looking tree branches. _'That doesn't make any sense. I only heard one snap.'_ She thought as she ran over to her friend, Vegeta following close behind.

Botan groaned and shifted her body slightly, "Ugh…." She looked at Hiei's face, he was unconscious and bleeding from his lip, nose, and forehead. She furrowed her eyebrows and scowled, "Hiei! Wake up!" She would have shoved him a little, but the branches had her arms trapped.

Vegeta got the branches off of the two quickly, with encouragement from Bulma. As soon as she could move her arms, Botan shook Hiei trying to make him wake up, but with no success. She gave up trying to wake him, and put her hands on his chest to shove him off of her, but the second she did, her heart froze. Where was his pulse? Why wasn't he breathing? She panicked and got up quickly, "He's got no pulse!"

They heard a rather evil laughter, in a voice Botan knew only too well. She spun around, to face the man responsible for the 'accident' and screamed in anger. "KOENMA! GIVE HIM BACK!" The brown haired, wild eyes prince shook his head disobediently. The second Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama left he had watched their every move, and come here as soon as they were headed back to Rekai.

Koenma chuckled evilly, and smirked at Botan and Hiei's lifeless body. "Now, now Botan. I can't do that. I only have the power to take the life; you have to bring him back on your own. You have two days before his soul dissolves as it should." With a shimmer of smoke, Koenma vanished, his eyes flashing acid green briefly.

Botan closed her eyes and searched her memory, she was sure there was some demon ritual to bring a soul back to a body. But she just couldn't remember it. "No! What am I going to do?!" She cried out in frustration, forgetting about Bulma and Vegeta, the new planet she was on, and the advanced _everything_ around her.

Bulma sort of stared in shock as Botan had a bit of a mental break down. "Botan?" She asked tentatively, unsure if the younger bluette would even hear her in her panicked state.

Botan spun around to face Bulma, tears already making their way down the girl's face. "I have an idea. I know how we can get Hiei back." Vegeta's eyes went wide; she wasn't talking about the dragon balls, was she? HE wanted to use those and he didn't want to have to wait another year.

"How? I'll do anything it takes!" She practically launched herself at Bulma, and Vegeta felt a twinge of regret. He didn't have the heart-or rather; he had too much heart-to be selfish at the moment. Damn women were making him weak, first Bulma could manipulate him, and now he cared the tiniest bit that this other woman was bawling. It just wasn't fair!

"We'll have to move fast, and find Goku. We'll need his instant translocation so we can get all seven dragon balls." Vegeta scoffed at Bulma, "Anything Kakarott can do, I can do better." Bulma sighed and rolled her eyes, "Now isn't the time Vegeta. You can be Mr. Better-than-thou after we get Hiei back for Botan. We're on a short clock." Botan slung her arms around Bulma in a death grip hug, she didn't know what the hell a dragon ball was, but it had to be good! "C-can we do it now? I-I don't think Hiei's soul can hold out for the allotted two days! He's still on probation, he's probably only got one day!"

"Probation?" Bulma asked in utter confusion. "I-well…uh…" Botan cursed herself mentally, how could she have let that slip? Bulma sensed Botan's fear and frustration and sighed. "Okay you can explain after Hiei is back. Vegeta," Bulma turned her gaze to the rather annoyed prince, "go get Goku." Vegeta scowled and jumped into the air, "You owe me onna." Was all he said before he flew off at top speed in the direction of Goku's ki.

Botan bit her lip and looked at Bulma, disappointed in herself. "I'm so sorry…we're not from another planet exactly…" She knew she had to tell the true story, and if Bulma still wanted to help her then she wouldn't feel guilty. "We're from another dimension of Earth. The part about Ningenkai, Rekai and Makai are true though! They're the three levels-sort of-of our Earth." Bulma nodded hesitantly, "Another dimension?" Botan bit her lip again, "Yes. I know that sounds really stupid, but I swear on my honor as the reaper!…"

As soon as the last word was out of her mouth, Botan regretted it. "The reaper? You are death?!" "Y-yes. But please don't hate me for it! It was the only way…the only way." Botan pleaded desperately, but she could see a fear planted in Bulma's eyes. "You keep away from my friends. I already promised to help, so Goku will still get the dragon balls for you; but once Hiei comes back to life, you have to leave." Botan shut her mauve eyes tightly, and felt a few tears poke through, but nodded. "I said I'd do anything…I'm so sorry Bulma…I didn't want to lie!"

Botan retreated over to Hiei's body, unable to be near Bulma and feel the fear rolling off of her in waves. She cradled Hiei's head in her lap, brushing some hair out of his face, then she got an idea. She focused all her energy and projected herself in spirit form, causing her body to collapse on the ground. Bulma had already turned away, so she hadn't seen Botan's body fall over.

Botan looked around and spotted Hiei's soul leaning against the remnants of the tree, already starting to dissolve. "Hiei?" She asked softly, the tears still flowing down her cheeks. He locked eyes with her, and shifted his arms, almost as if inviting her to embrace him. She took the invitation and launched herself at him, "As soon as we get you back into your body, I have to leave…I'm not welcome here any more!" She sobbed into his shoulder, and he wrapped his arms tightly around her.

Hiei didn't say anything, but he was angry. Hell, he was pissed. Up until just a few moments ago the two women had been friends, it wasn't as if Botan hadn't been the deity of death before, but now Bulma was being so cruel to her.

Vegeta and Goku appeared in front of Bulma, and Goku was the first to notice Botan was slumped over. But he figured it was because she was crying and didn't want to be seen. "Goku I need you to gather the dragon balls as quickly as you possibly can so we can revive Hiei. The sooner he comes back, the sooner she will leave." Bulma felt the smallest twinge of guilt, but pushed it roughly aside. She couldn't allow death herself to be near her friends, she couldn't risk any unnecessary deaths. They couldn't afford it.

Goku nodded, "Alright, but I'll need the dragon radar." Bulma nodded and rushed into the house and came out with the small round radar. "Hurry." Goku nodded, placed two fingers to his forehead, and transported himself to the location of the closest dragon ball.

Botan stayed in her spirit form, crying into Hiei's spirit's shoulder, for a couple hours before she heard someone call her name. "Botan?" She pried herself away from Hiei to see Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama by her body, along with Bulma, Goku and Vegeta. Although Bulma was standing back a little bit. Botan reached out to her friends and looked back at Hiei. "I'll be waiting for you on the other side Hiei." She kissed his cheek before running back into her body.

She jolted upright and threw herself at the closest of her three friends, Kuwabara. Kuwabara shouted in surprise, even he hadn't seen that coming. Botan pulled herself away from her friend, looking down like she was ashamed, "Can we please bring Hiei back now? He's waiting by the tree." She didn't look up to meet Goku's eyes as he set the seven dragon balls on the ground and summoned the dragon. She didn't even look up at the dragon as it spoke, asking for the wish.

"Please, I just wish for Hiei to be alive again." She spoke quietly, but it seemed that the dragon heard her, and everyone watched a bright golden yellow glow surrounded Hiei. When his body was set back down in front of Botan she waited for him to open his eyes before she stood up.

Everyone else watched as the dragon balls rose into the air and shot off in seven different directions. Bulma took a deep breath and turned to Botan. "Alright, he's alive. We had a deal Botan." The blue haired deity nodded limply, "Good-bye." Closing her eyes, Botan willed her body to return to the desert, where she had come out of the portal when she had first arrived.

Hiei glared at Bulma as Botan vanished from the area. "If she'd wanted to kill you all; you would have been long dead by now, bitch." He ripped off his bandana and locked onto Botan's location, flitting away before anything could be said. Vegeta and Goku turned to Bulma, confused as hell, and she sighed deeply with tears poking out of her eyes. "She told me what she was when you went to fetch Goku, Vegeta. She's the reaper, she's death okay! I don't want her to take any of you away!" She screamed before running into the house.

Kuwabara, Kurama and Yusuke stared, dumbfounded, at the space where Bulma had been standing. "But Botan doesn't kill people." Yusuke said quietly, anger burning behind his words. The two saiyans turned on him with a questioning look. "She makes sure there aren't unexpected deaths! She guides souls!" His spirit energy was flaring around him, and Kurama and Kuwabara knew they had to calm him down quickly. "Yusuke, how would they know that here? The after life works differently in the different dimensions!"

The raging, black haired teen glared at his friend, shouting, "IT SHOULDN'T MATTER! BOTAN ISN'T EVEN A MEAN PERSON! HOW COULD ANYONE NOT TRUST HER!" Yusuke felt like heart was exploding. Three years ago when he had died unexpectedly, Botan had helped him get his life back. She had helped with his cases, she kept his job secret, and she even looked out for him like a protective older sister. It disgusted him to see her as hurt as she had just been.

--

Botan sat on the scorching sand, completely bawling. She didn't hear anything approaching her, and she didn't hear the rumbling, vicious growls, until they were barely a foot from her face.

She looked up and screamed, there was a dinosaur in front of her. She started pushing herself backward until she bumped into something very scaly. She felt teeth sink into her shoulder, and she screamed in agony. The dinosaur in front of her lunged for her neck, so she did the only thing she could think of; she ejected her soul from her body. It was the only way she wouldn't die. But she wouldn't have a body anymore. The Rekai tentai would be able to see her, due to their high spirit awareness, but to every one else, she wouldn't exist.

Hiei smelled blood thick in the air and ran faster than he had ever gone before, he had to get there before it was too late. Seconds later he could see two large reptiles, otherwise known as dinosaurs, fighting over a body. He saw a flash of blue hair and everything went red. He killed the dinosaurs in mere milliseconds, and shouted in anger when he saw how damaged her body was. She was losing lots of blood, and large patches of flesh were missing on her shoulder, stomach and legs. On the few spots that weren't cut up, there were angry bluish-purple bruises.

He scooped her body in his arms and turned his face towards where her spirit was standing. "Damn it onna you'd better not die." She thought he was talking to her, but what he said next both surprised and scared her. "Your spirit energy is so weak. Don't you dare die!" He ran back in the direction of Capsule Corp, with every intention of forcing its inhabitants to fix her body before her soul dissolved. He didn't know she'd managed to eject her soul; he thought it was still in her body.

--

Bulma slammed her fist into the wall, was it so bad that she hadn't wanted to take any risks?! Botan was better off as far from here as possible.

Vegeta growled at the pissed off teenager, his energy levels were incredible, and they were still rising. He was far stronger than Goku was as a super saiyan. Goku himself was both afraid and amazed by the power of the younger boy. "Look, kid, if it's any consolation, I'm sorry." Yusuke glared at Goku, and held his hand out in the shape of a gun, preparing to use his spirit gun when a soft voice whispered in his ear,

He fell to his knees and grabbed his head, he couldn't have just heard Botan's voice. That would mean she was a spirit again. Hiei appeared only seconds after Yusuke fell to his knees, holding the extremely injured Botan. "Somebody fix her! NOW!" He roared angrily.

Bulma looked out the window and her heart stopped. Botan's body was covered in wounds, blood and sand. _'It's all my fault. Oh no. It's all my fault, oh no it's all my fault!'_ She rushed out side with a first aid kit, but when she stepped outside, the smell of blood alone told her there wasn't anything she could do. Hiei looked almost feral as no one moved. "WELL?!" He shouted, glaring specifically at Bulma. It was, in his eyes, her fault this had even happened.

Kurama approached Hiei slowly, "Hiei. Listen closely. I'll go get Yukina; she can heal Botan's wounds. I can make her a blood replenishment. But you'll have to calm down and promise not to do anything rash." He looked Hiei sternly in the eyes, "Can you promise me that? Remember Botan's life depends on it." Hiei nodded slowly, "Fine. But no one is allowed near her. Especially not any one from this dimension."

He had changed his tune pretty quickly. First he had been intent on forcing Bulma to care for Botan's wounds, but the more he let his feral side think about it, the more he suspected she might try to murder Botan. If he had been at all rational at the moment, he'd have realized that idea was stupid; but he was completely lost to his primal, feral instincts.

Kurama sighed, "Alright. I'll be two seconds. Can I trust you?" Hiei growled and bared his fangs at Kurama, "YES! Now move your god damned ass before she fucking dies!"

Kurama dashed through the portal and into the temple, "YUKINA?!" He called out, searching for Hiei's twin sister. He burst into the kitchen and almost collided with her, "You have to come with me right now. Botan's life depends on it." He said quickly, pulling her out towards his portal.

As soon as they stepped outside, he saw Koenma blocking the way. "Move toddler! I don't have time for you; Botan is dying!" He pushed Koenma out of the way, pulling Yukina through the portal.

--

Yukina took one look at Botan and nearly screamed, "Oh my gosh! Hiei set her down!" She rushed over to Hiei, noticing with each step how odd he looked. His skin was slowly turning green, and his jagan was open wide. "I won't." He growled lowly to his sister. He was afraid, afraid she might die if he let her go.

Botan watched Yukina come through the portal and approached Hiei and her body. She wasn't really scared at the moment. What was the difference if she was alive anyway? She was death; nobody liked death.

--

Yukina shivered at her brother's tone, "O-okay…then just stand still while I heal her, okay? And if she starts to thrash, hold her still." He nodded once and Yukina pressed her hands to Botan's body, focusing her energy into closing the wounds.

Kurama worked quickly off to the side, manipulating plants to grow and give him what he would need to make the blood replenishment for Botan's body. He had it finished at about the same time Yukina had closed up the last hole and collapsed against Kuwabara in exhaustion.

Botan turned away from Hiei and her body. She didn't want to go back. She needed to wonder around for a while; and think on her decision. She went right beside Hiei and whispered in his ear, "Hiei; I'm going to think for a while. But I'll come back to you." Though she had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't even hear her. So she made her way towards the forest. She didn't ever want to go near another desert.

--

Kurama put the paste he had made into Botan's mouth and forced it down her throat. Her body slowly regained colour, and Hiei calmed down returning to his normal self. He could faintly see her chest moving, but it was barely noticeable; just like when she projects her soul away from her body.

"She's ejected her soul already." He said calmly, tightening his grip on the empty body.

Bulma couldn't move. _'It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's all my fault…'_ was the only thought that ran though her mind.

Vegeta and Goku looked between Botan's group of friends, each other, and Bulma, and Vegeta was the first to ask; "Well, what happens next?" Kurama turned to the saiyan, ignoring the impeccable resemblance to Hiei, "Now we go back to our dimension because we have a war to fight. Hiei, you need to stop your army." He turned his green eyes to the dark form of Hiei.

The fire demon scowled and shook his head. "Give me one good reason." "Botan would want you to." Hiei gnashed his teeth together and dropped Botan's body angrily, "Why should I care about that!? She's willingly staying dead! OBVIOUSLY she doesn't care at all!" He glared at her empty body as he spoke, and he felt his heart break at his own words.

Bulma watched wide-eyed and dumbfounded. The prophecy Botan had mentioned. It was coming true. Botan hadn't been lying about everything…and she… "Oh my kami…I've made a horrible mistake…" She breathed out as she fell backwards. She felt like something had pushed her.

Somehow, Botan had heard Hiei's angry words. She'd felt his hatred of her for not returning to her body; she realized she'd just set the prophecy on the wrong track. She ran back to where her body was calling out to her. She knocked Bulma over in her attempts to reach her body; but Hiei caught her around the neck before she could dive back in. His eyes were narrowed dangerously at her, his hand tightly squeezing her neck. He was putting so much strain on her spirit that the outline of her became visible to every one.

"P-please…Hi-iei…" She gasped, trying to pull his hand off her neck. That shouldn't have been working, he shouldn't have been able to make physical contact with her spirit; how was this happening? She looked into his eyes and saw that they were almost black, he wasn't himself, he wasn't Hiei any more. "I l-love…y-y-you…" She whispered, desperately trying to get him to let go before he strangled her spirit.

Her words sliced through Hiei's mind, although no one else heard them. His eyes slowly turned red again, and he registered that he was about to kill her spirit. He removed his hand, horrified at himself.

Botan gasped for breath as she crawled towards her body. She set her spirit in place, but found that she couldn't move her body. Something was missing. It wasn't an organ, it wasn't a bone; so why couldn't she move? Then she felt it. She could feel a single broken nerve, at the base of her neck. She tried as hard as she could to open her mouth and tell them about the nerve, but she couldn't do more than open her eyes.

Hiei waited for her body to move; but when all she did was open her eyes, he used his jagan to probe her mind. **'Onna' **Her eyes darted to him and she tried to respond as best she could. **'Hiei nerve base neck of broken!" **Her words were jumbled up and he looked confused, so she tried again. **'Neck……n-nerve….broken….'** She barely managed to get the words in the right order that time, but knew he got it when he swore.

"There's a broken nerve in her neck!" He dropped to his knees and scooped her into his arms again. He knew Yukina was far too tired to heal it, but they didn't know any one else who could fix it. He felt tears fall from his eyes and hit the ground with a soft thud as blood red jewels.

Goku watched and silently apologized to the earth as he put two fingers to his forehead and vanished for only a second, returning with a small bean in the palm of his hand. "Give her this. It's called a senzu bean…it's the last one. For the next five months, that is." Hiei looked up at the tall, muscular man and almost smiled as he took the bean and placed it in her mouth.

Botan wasn't sure what happened next, all she knew was her arms and legs were finally responding to her brain. "Thank you." She said shyly to Goku; he had just given her something important, something that might have saved his own life one day. He just nodded to her, a big goofy grin plastered on his face.

Bulma stood up tentatively, and walked towards Botan slowly, "Botan, I am so sorry I was so mean…I just…" Botan stood up abruptly and locked her arms around Bulma, "I know. I know." Bulma returned the hug and wiped a tear from her eyes.

Botan turned to her friends, embraced the tired Yukina and thanked her repeatedly. "We should go back; I think something might be wrong with Koenma. Earlier he came here, and his eyes were glowing bright green." Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Yukina gaped at her, "If someone's taken control of him, you and Yukina are staying here until it is safe. Right Hiei?" Yusuke said coldly, he didn't want to risk losing his beloved sister again.

Hiei nodded sharply, "He's right. For once. You two will stay here until we come back for you." Botan opened her mouth to complain and argue, but she was cut off by a deep kiss from Hiei. He pulled back after a minute and whispered against her lips, "I won't lose you twice in one day." His words silenced her will to follow the boys. The look in his eyes almost broke her heart. "Okay. I'll stay here; if it's okay with Bulma."

Bulma saw her chance to make up for her mistake before and nodded immediately, "Of course you can! I insist! As a way to make up for my rudeness. Please?" Botan looked between her fellow bluette and Hiei, "I'll be waiting then, with Bulma and Yukina. Come back alive koi." She quickly kissed him on the lips before he walked over to the other guys.

Yukina hugged Kuwabara and kissed his cheek, "You come back alive too." She walked over to Botan when he nodded. "Good luck boys…" The four boys walked through a portal, heading off to face Koenma.

The boys stepped though the portal and went straight to Keiko's house. Yusuke knew he'd die if anything happened to his girlfriend. It was a sheer coincidence that Shizuru was over visiting; but it only made things easier. "Keiko, Shizuru, you guys have to get out of here. We'll come and get you when it's safe to come back." Was the only explanation as Yusuke and Kuwabara pushed the two girls through the portal Kurama summoned.

As soon as they were all assured that their loved ones were now safe, Kurama having several hundred different Makai plants protecting his house and his unknowing mother, they summoned another portal: destination Rekai.

They got to the palace and found it to already be in ruins. There was something eerie about the silence, and they all knew what had happened. Hiei's army had already struck. "Hiei no baka. Why the hell would you have even bothered scrounging up that stupid army?!" The fire demon turned to Yusuke and snorted, "I never intended on being Koenma's lap dog longer than necessary. I was destined to take over; or I could have taken over Makai and rid it of all the traitorous, evil, snide, ugly demons that cause problems."

"Well then why didn't you choose the second option!" Hiei shrugged, "Fuck if I wanted to screw over my pride and admit to caring for anything. Or any one." The detective was about to clock Hiei when Kurama grabbed his fist, "Stop bickering please. This would have happened regardless Yusuke. It was either Hiei did it or the possessed Koenma would have run this whole place into far more chaos. This was the upside; trust me."

Kuwabara had settled for glaring at Hiei; having been able to see past his anger long enough to actually think. "Hey guys, shouldn't we find Koenma right now? He could be very dangerous." Kurama nodded, "Yes. Let's hurry."

It took them a little over two hours, but they found a very placid Koenma lying half-dead on the floor. They approached him cautiously, and a large parasite jumped out of his body, lunging for Hiei. In a flash Hiei drew his sword and had sliced the bug in half; "So that was what made him all loco?" Yusuke asked, dumbfounded that the pint-sized prince (although somewhat weak at times) had been possessed by a Makai bug.

Koenma twitched on the floor, and groaned in pain. "Botan is so dead for skipping work." He said groggily as he pushed himself up and off of the floor. "What do you mean skipping work Koenma? You sent her on a mission to another dimension to retrieve technology." Koenma looked up at his spirit detectives, then looked around and screamed rather girlishly. "WHAT happened to my beautiful palace!"

Yusuke made quotations in the air with his fingers and replied, "Hiei's saved us all by having his massive, evil army demolish it. Hallelujah." Koenma groaned, "Oh for the love of my father! Hiei! What the hell did you go and do that for!?" Shrugging, Hiei replied, "Fuck if I wanted to sacrifice my pride to admit that I cared for someone or something."

Kurama winced at Hiei's response. He'd been hoping the first time that it had been some twisted Hiei-joke. Guess not. "Hiei; you'd better not let Botan catch you saying that; I do believe you're already given her the impression that you love her as much as she loves you. You wouldn't want her to be pissed off with you now would you?"

Hiei snorted and crossed his arms "She's in another dimension you idiot; and it doesn't matter what she thinks. I know that I don't." Koenma shook his head softly at Hiei, "I won't have you live if you hurt her Hiei; she's my adopted sister." "Relax you brat." Hiei wouldn't admit it to any one; other than himself and Botan, but he did love her. He wouldn't have people thinking that he had a weakness they could exploit.

Kurama, as always, seemingly read his best friends mind with a sigh; "Hiei; you should know none of us would try to exploit her as your weakness." Kuwabara and Yusuke both grinned as they put everything together, "Oh; so Hiei is shy and afraid?" Yusuke said coyly, "Who'd have thunk it? Hiei? Afraid!" Kuwabara said, bursting into laughter. "Hn." Hiei shrugged. What could possibly go wrong if he just admitted it to these bakas and threatened them not to tell any one at all? "FINE. Maybe I am fond of her. Tell any one and I'll ruthlessly slaughter you all."

"Okay Hiei. We get it. We won't tell." "But you bet your short ass we'll never let you this down." Yusuke added with a snicker. Koenma sighed in defeat, "I'll accept your feelings for her." Kurama grinned and summoned a portal back to the dimension they had dumped the girls off in, "Come on, we should fetch the girls." They went through the portal and made their way inside the large building, where they could feel Botan, Yukina, Keiko and Shizuru.

* * *

End of chapter five.

The spelling and grammar should be pretty good. Every time I went to add onto this fic (in total, it's 48 pages long) I read what I already had and fixed any mistakes. R&R

You'd better really like this chapter. It's given me HELL just trying to POST IT! Stupid internet!


	6. Author's note

**Hey, it's me. I am soooooo sorry I haven't updated in months.**

**I kinda lost my writing mojo back in September. I do however have a new chapter for "Summer Heat" and the new chapter for "Just One More Chance" is half done. Warning, however, it is a sad one!**

**I'm going to try my very best to make sure there's no mistakes in the things I post, but I don't have microsoft word anymore. (My computer came back from the shop without it. God only knows WHY.**

**Therefore I am typing these chapters on wordpad. So...yeah.**

**Anyways, sorry again. **


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